the mission's end and after
by deadpool19
Summary: The second round brings pride for some and stirs trouble for others.
1. Default Chapter

Disclaimer: I don't own naruto or anything else  
  
The mission's end and after  
  
(takes place after chp. 215)  
  
Naruto could feel the anger in him growing. He was disgusted with the person acroos from him, Uchiha Sasuke, his teammate he had once admired. sasuke's appearance had been altered from the curse seals final level, he now had tough red skin, his hair fell down to his back, and on his usual emotionless face there was a horribly evil grin. The only way to recognize sasuke was the sharingan activated in his eyes, and large collection of energy in his left hand. The chidori.  
  
The demonic sasuke glared at the blonde haired runt, who had somehow managed to match him blow for blow in their fight. Naruto Uzamaki, a truly pathetic specimen who had somehow gained gigantic powers since their days at the ninja academy. This stubborn idiot was forming some unknown jutsu, odd that he needed to summon a clone to use it. But it didn't matter, because soon naruto would just be a memory.  
  
(earlier that day) At the gates of the hidden leaf village, a young girl waited for the return of her five friends. Hinata Hyuga had very little idea why they had left, only that sasuke had run away. (it was all she could understand when she asked a crying sakura) She did not really care for sasuke, he had always come off as cold to her. He received much admiration and affection from the village, especially from any girl was in ten years of age with sasuke. But hinata sat, eagerly awaiting the other five boys. She had grown closer to all of them since the infamous attack that claimed the third hokage. In a way they were forced to grow closer because random teams of gennin were constantly being drafted for missions. She had even managed to grow closer to her cousin, Neji, which was a plesant surprise for hinata. But the main person she was waiting for was naruto, the object of her undying affection. "hmmm... if naruto was in my place, I don't think he'd be waiting. He would run after his friends, wanting to help." Hinata thought to herself. After a moment she smiled, activated her byakugan, and raced after her friends.  
  
Rock Lee was stunned. Kimimaro, who was possible the strongest man he had ever fought lay on the ground, his unbreakable bones crushed to dust. And far more astonishing, Lee's savior had been Gaara, who up until five minutes ago, lee strongly disliked. Gaara had been sitting quietly, until lee decided to break the silence, "Why are we waiting around here for?" lee demanded," we should be chasing after naruto, he could be in great danger." Gaara looked over, thinking that was a stupid question. "I am waiting for my brother and sister to arrive with your friends in tow. You are waiting here because you are wounded and would be nothing but a distraction in battle. And naruto will be fine, his power greatly surpasses sasuke's, this curse seal will make no difference." Lee considered gaara's words, which most anyone else would have found infuriating, then he considered the tone in which the words were said. They were said without hatered or anger. Gaara had certainly changed since they had last met.  
  
"I don't need a woman's help dressing a wound!" shouted an annoyed shikamaru. "You can either take my help or I'll give you some more wounds to be dressed, you weak little idiot. And shut up with your sexist bullshit already!" yelled temari, who was far more than annoyed. "I'm not being sexists, It's that a man should never be saved by a woman and then need that woman's help with bandages." Skikamaru said as he returned to his usual calm, uncaring tone of voice. It was far too much work to argue with anyone, and with Temari it was even harder. She was louder than any girl back at the leaf village, and to her credit she was also more powerful. She had been the first to come out victorious against one of shikamaru's master plans when they fought at the chuunin exam. Shikamaru was still made a chuunin, much to temari's chagrin. It had been one of the many fights they had engaged in over the last twenty minutes. "So, you wanted me to leave you to get your ass kicked by that sound bitch? You wouldn't have lasted another two minutes against her!" Temari shouted. "hmmmph...fine. thank you for the rescue. Now, will you please take me to the rest of my team?" shikamaru asked. "sure." "really?" "yep, right after I dress that wound!" temari, shouting again. "NO WOMAN IS DRESSING MY WOUND!!!" they would not be meeting the others for a very long time.  
  
Thanks to the byakugen, hinata was quickly able to locate naruto. But as soon as he saw him, she was terrified to see him fighting a monster, and after looking at the monster more closely she realized it was sasuke! "N-n- naruto, be careful!" she stammered. Naruto's head jerked to see the sheepish blue haired girl so close to the battle. "Hinata, run!" "B-b-but I- I-I c-can't leav-e y" "Now, dammit!" Hinata turned and ran, knowing no matter how much she had improved, she would just be in naruto's way. "Ha Ha Ha, worried about that pathetic whelp?" These were sasuke's first words in his newly transformed state, "It doesn't matter, after I've killed you, I'll hunt here down and give her similar treatment." Naruto's eyes bulged at the thought of this...thing fighting hinata. "No sasuke, after this you won't be able to harm anyone ever again!" At this, Sasuke jumped into the air, seconds away from attacking with the chidori. "Alright fox, give me all your power! NOW!!!" naruto commanded silently. "Hur Hur Hur, very well" was the reply in his head. All of a sudden naruto's rasengan grew, and the energy within started to spin furiously. It was sasuke's turn to be horrified as the tremendous force of the winds kept him from nearing the ground or naruto.  
  
Hinata stared at the large ball of chakra, not needing the byakugen to see it's strength. "n-naruto, you're amazing."  
  
In unison Lee and Gaara's heads shot up. Not saying a word, both raced to the scene.  
  
Temari's mouth hung open. Even from a distance she could see the tree's being kicked up by the force of the attack. "w-what the hell is that?" she asked in wonder. Shikamaru didn't bother looking up "I'd say it's naruto's fight wrapping up."  
  
"What are you?" shouted sasuke, knowing the battle would soon end. "I've told you time and again: I'm the future Hokage, and I'm not to be underestimated!" Naruto declared as he shoved the rasengan into sasuke's chest, flinging he up into the air. The instant he did this, the sharingan broke, the curse seal faded into its usual state, and the chidori dissipated. When sasuke hit the ground, he fell to his knees, threw up a large amount of blood, and passed out. Naruto smiled thinking that he could keep his promise of returning sasuke to the village, even if he was slightly... damaged. He looked up to see Hinata, Lee, Gaara, Shikamaru, Temair, Kiba, and Kankuro all with amazed looks on their face. (except shikamaru, who didn't look the least bit surprised) "So, shikamaru, mission accomplished?" naruto asked while wearing his trademark grin. "I'd say so" was the only reply naruto could hear before he passed out.  
  
My first fic, hope you liked. I'll update later 


	2. aftermath

I still don't own anything  
  
Aftershock  
  
An exhausted naruto collapsed on the ground, able to rest knowing he had kept his promise to sakura. By the time he hit the ground, hinata was already kneeling by him, removing various ointments and bandages from her bag. "well, looks like we have two people to carry back to the village. What a bother." Shikamaru stated, "and we should probably pick up choji and neji along the way." Hinata looked up from naruto "where is brother neji?" "both split off from the group to handle the sound nins, but I'm sure they're fine."  
  
By this point, rock lee had moved over to pick up sasuke's body. "Whoa, I think naruto might've went a little overboard here..." Shikamaru, wanting to mask the fact he had forgotten about sasuke walked over to lee. "what do you mean overboard?" Lee looked up, and with a disheartened face said "His- his body is a mess. The arms and legs are alright, but his torso feels... broken. I'm not sure any of his ribs are intact." After a moments pause shikamaru replied, "hmm... naruto did the job assigned to us. Sasuke may be a great ninja, but his decision to seek out orochimaru makes him a traitor nonetheless." Rock lee frowned at the answer. He had a great respect for sasuke, and calling him a traitor seemed a little harsh. "finally, time to head back." Said a very tired shikamaru.  
  
(the next day at the hospital) naruto sat up in bed, yawned, and did a few morning stretches before realizing he wasn't in his room and that he wasn't alone. Both hinata and sakura were in the room. Hinata's face lit up at naruto's rising. "H-hello naruto, are you feeling well?" she asked, surprised that he was awake after such an ordeal. "Uhhh... yeah. Why wouldn't I be?" Naruto said, his grin once again fixed on his face. "hey naruto..." sakura said weakly. "Hey saku- "naruto stopped halfway through, noticing sakura's eyes were red. "wait, what're you so down about? I brought back sasuke, just like I promised. Speaking of which, why aren't you in his room?" naruto then added with his sly voice "not that I'm complaining." Sakura looked down at the floor "they aren't allowing visitors." Naruto sat up, and proving he had regained his strength, shouted "WHY THE HELL NOT?" sakura looked like she was about to cry so hinata interjected "well, he is in a far more critical condition than anyone else, even worse than brother neji." Naruto finally remembered that he had not been the only one on the mission. "everyone's alive right?" he asked "oh yes, neji suffered many deep cuts and what looks like an arrow through his torso... but he still insisted on walking home himself." Hinata replied, with a tone of embarrassment regarding neji's stubbornness. "heh, sounds like neji. But what happened to choji?" "actually, choji suffered very little physical damage, but completely exhausted his chakra taking the third pill. He also burned off most of his... well his..." hinata started to stammer. "His fat?" naruto asked. "y-yes, that." Hinata sheepishly replied. "ah ha ha ha. I've got to see that!" naruto yelled, jumping out of bed to find choji, even though he had no idea where his room was. Hinata smiled and ran after him, leaving sakura in the room alone. In a small room below the hospital, a raven haired boy lay unconscious. He was guarded by three ANBU, which was more than the village could spare. Inside the room a meeting was taking place. There were only four people present; Tsunade, Kakashi, Iruka, and Jiraiya. The meeting had been completely silent up until Jiraiya spoke "man, naruto really kicked the crap out of him, huh?" the other three looked up in annoyance "could you please try to take this seriously?" Tsunade asked. With the ice having been broken Kakashi felt it appropriate to speak, "this is my fault, I should have kept a closer eye on him." "I'm worried that the sound nins were able to enter the city undetected so easily." Iruka commented, "maybe we should keep a few more ninjas in the village." "I think your right, orochimaru won't give up on sasuke so quickly." Tsunade agreed. There was another long pause. This time kakashi broke the silence, "I can't believe naruto can control that much chakra, and while performing the rasengan no less." "I don't think he can. Naruto would never willingly unleash an attack like this on a friend, even under those conditions. I'm sure naruto asked the Kyubi for power, and the demon gave him too much." Iruka replied. "well, mo matter what happened, we can't do much about it, can we?" Jiraiya stated. "no, I guess there isn't." tsunade siad with a weak smile. At this all four members vanished going their separate ways.  
  
Naruto had been running around the hospital for ten minutes before hinata was able to catch up with him so she could show him where choji's room was. "holy crap, it wasn't a lie!!! You actually lost weight! Ha hah ha!" naruto exclaimed while rolling on the floor. "hey... munch shut up munch..." was all choji could say in between bites. Naruto looked around choji's room, seeing all the discarded food containers. "hey, you have a party in here or something? What's with all the damn food?" choji stopped eating to answer "all of my techniques are based on me being... uh" "A fat idiot?" naruto chimed in, still being fascinated with a thin choji. But before choji could return the insult, shikamaru walked into the room, "huh? You're already awake?" naruto looked around and realized that shikamaru was talking to him. "of course I am. I never have needed much rest, unlike you." Shikamaru shrugged off the insult, taking great satisfaction the first mission he lead had no fatalities. All of a sudden, a light went off in naruto's head. "hey, shikamaru..." "what?" "uhh... after my fight with sasuke, before I passed out, I could have sworn I saw..." "Gaara? Well that's because you did see him. And expect to see a lot more of him." "why's that?" "It was part of the peace treaty with the sand, since we are having a shinobi shortage, they were to give us a few extra ninjas. I think they sent Gaara and his siblings just to piss us off." Naruto took a moment to absorb this. Gaara was an incredibly strong fighter, and although naruto had beaten him, in naruto's mind the fight could've gone the other way. "I guess I should be on my toes." Naruto finally said with a small smile. "N- not r-really, naruto," hinata said "Gaara doesn't seem very angry at you... he's made a big change since the chuunin exam." Naruto was very confused, were they talking about the same gaara? "she's right, gaara actually said he owed you a large debt. You know what he's talking about?" shikamaru asked. Naruto smiled, "yeah, I might."  
  
(neji's hospital room) Neji wanted to die. Not because of the pain he was in, which was great, but because he was restricted to his bed for what the hospital said would be a week. Of course, for neji, that meant four days tops. He had quietly been steaming in his room for the last hour, until his door was suddenly flung open. "an attacker?" neji thought for a moment, until he recognized the attacker as his teammate, Rock Lee. "hello, neji! Not felling well? That's okay!!! Eat one hundred of master Gai's special heal dumplings and you'll be good as new!!!" rock lee energetically said, while shoving the dumplings into neji's mouth before getting pushed away. Neither lee's cheery attitude or the bitter taste of the dumplings sat well with neji. "ack... KEEP THAT AWAY FROM ME!!!" neji shouted so loud that he probably opened one of his wounds. After calming down, neji realized what was wrong with this picture, "Lee, what happened to your crutches?" Lee paused for a moment, "Ah, yes! Our wonderful new hokage healed all of my wounds, so I will now be your and tenten's teammate again!" lee said while giving his nice guy pose. Neji, meanwhile, felt like he was getting an ulcer, which was about to get worse. "Hey neji!" shouted naruto as he kicked open the door. "Naruto? What happened to your wounds? I heard you'd be out for at least a week!" "why does everyone keep asking me that?" naruto said, thinking outloud. "h-h- hello brother neji," hinata said from the doorway "I, um, b-brought this medicine for you..." neji looked over a plainly replied "thank you hinata." This was a great occassion, for the first time in history hinata was neji's favorite person in the room.  
  
Thanks to everyone whose read this far, I'll update later. 


	3. calm before a new storm

I don't own anything, I had to steal this computer  
  
Clam Before a New Storm  
  
Naruto's world had changed so quickly after he was released from the hospital. The most notable change was the addition of the sand triplets, Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro, as shinobi of the leaf. This didn't bother too many in the leaf village, since most only knew them from the Chuunin exam finals. But the biggest change for naruto was that sasuke had still not been released. No one even knew if he had waken up yet. Sasuke's absence left naruto needing a new rival, and team 7 needing a new member. Actually, two new members would be best, since sakura had been in a slump since sasuke left...  
  
(sakura's room, morning)  
  
sakura let out a yawn as she rose from her bed. She had just lately regained her ability to sleep, which worried her. She was afraid that she might be forgetting sasuke, which was very paranoid of her, since she thought of him all the time. "He must have healed by now, right?" she thought silently "From what everyone told me, he only fought naruto. I can't even imagine naruto beating sasuke, much less this badly. And naruto's already healed from the battle..." sakura began to think of naruto. She no longer hated naruto as she had in the ninja academy, and she recognized his strength as a ninja. After all, he beat neji. But sakura never even thought that meant he could compare with sasuke. "naruto, how strong are you?"  
  
Neji had was flying through the air, before he caught himself on a tree branch. He had been released from the hospital two days ago, when he had finally exhausted all the nurses trying to drag him back to bed, and now he was training. The reason he felt that he needed to leave early was that the village was now crawling with 'new' people he considered almost his equal. The first two were not really new, but people he had over looked. One was naruto, who through beating neji and sasuke, had earned neji's respect. He was beginning to see why hinata admired him. The second was Rock Lee, another neji had overlooked, despite his byakugen. Lee had proven he had phenomenal strength and speed. In the physical sense, he greatly surpassed neji. The third, and only new one, was neji's current sparring partner and the reason neji had been flying through the air. Gaara closely studied neji's offensive and defensive reactions. Neji had managed to break gaara's defense several times using the byakugen, but never doing any serious damage. "okay gasp one more time!" shouted neji. Gaara smiled at what he use to regard as stupidity, but now knew was determination. "you must really like that hospital..." gaara said with a sigh. Neji disappeared with out a noise, reappearing behind gaara, and easily got swatted away by a sand club. "Ugh... I've used up most of my chakra... I think I'm done." Neji begrudgingly admitted. "good. I was beginning to wonder what 'one more time' meant to you." Gaara replied. "was that a joke?" neji thought to himself.  
  
Hinata was exhausted. She had used every ounce of chakra in her body training. She was also the happiest she had ever been. Probably because she was training with naruto, the boy she had always looked at from a distance. It had taken all of her courage to ask him to train with her, but it paid of when he flashed his grin. And now naruto was out getting them lunch. Hinata started blushing when she thought about them eating lunch together. Then her fear clawed into her. What if she offended him during lunch? But before she had a chance to think about it, naruto had returned with two bowls of ramen (really? What a shocker!) "Hey hinata, hope your hungry!" he shouted. Hinata smiled, knowing that no matter what she did, naruto would accept her. They began eating until hinata raised her head, "Ummm... n- naruto? How much do I owe you?" Naruto looked at her blankly. "For what?" "t-the ramen." "don't worry about it! My treat! Like a thank you for helping me train!" naruto said, while spitting out small pieces of ramen. "y-y-you mean, you don't mind training with me?" hinata asked sheepishly. "No way! You're really strong hinata, and you're a fun person to be with!" naruto said. "Oh!" hinata exclaimed, now blushing furiously, "but wouldn't you rather be training with someone like...sakura?" "heh, nah. You're a lot stronger than sakura... and besides she's really been depressed lately. I doubt she'd be in a training mood." Naruto trailed off for a moment, thinking about how sakura loved sasuke, and that he couldn't change that. "oh, well..." naruto thought, "maybe I should move on." And for the first time, naruto saw hinata in a very different light.  
  
(somewhere unknown)  
  
a black bird dropped a piece of paper in front of two lone travlers. "what's it say, Itachi?" Kisame asked. "A message from the Akastsuki leaders. I am to return to the leaf village." Itachi replied. "Ah, they want us to take naruto from that shithole..." "not us, just me." This suprised kisame, "what? A solo mission? But akastsuki always travel in pairs..." Itachi looked over at his companion. "the leafs defenses have improved, one person can get in with less commotion. And the target has changed." Kisame looked up "now I understand." He thought to himself. "Orochimaru has shown interest in another sharingan user. So to keep him from attaining the eye, I'm to kill my brother." With that Itachi turned and headed for the village of the leaf.  
  
Will sasuke awake in time to defend himself? And even if he does will it matter against Itachi's strength? You know writing that preview was fun! Anyway i'll update soon 


	4. Itachi's journey

I don't own naruto  
  
Itachi's Journey  
  
Itachi slowly walked down the longest route to the leaf village, no intention of rushing this mission. He, like all members of the Akastsuki, knew how to read the underlying message in their missions. His mission scroll said he was to kill sasuke because of the interest Orochimaru had in him. That meant killing Orochimaru would also complete the mission, and itachi did love a challenge.  
  
(leaf village) "ergh!" naruto yelled as he skidded on the ground. Hinata had decided to take the day off from training, and naruto was starting to wish he had stayed with her. Because in her absence, he had been training with Rock Lee. Lee did not know any jutsus, but his strength and fighting ability easily put him on par with naruto. But despite the beating naruto was receiving, he knew this was the best training he could get. "Hmmm... I think that's enough for today." Lee said with a grin. "What are you talking about? You get one lucky shot and you think I'm done?" naruto yelled back, a little annoyed. "Of course not! But we should leave some energy for tonight's mission." Lee replied, reassuring naruto that he knew his strength. "Oh, yeah..." naruto happily replied "wait, what mission?" Lee laughed "y'know, you should really read the mission postings. Several of us gennin are to show around the sand triplets, to let them get acquainted with the village. You and I have been assigned Gaara." Naruto gulped, "uhh... you think that's a good idea? I mean last time I saw him, he didn't seem like a social person." "ha ha," lee smiled and nodded in agreement "he's changed a lot since then, and you're the last person who has anything to worry about." Naruto looked up, "why's that?" "He told me he owes you a large debt, he wouldn't say anything else." "what could that mean?" naruto wondered to himself.  
  
(tsunades office) Shikamaru had a complaint about his latest mission. This wasn't anything unusual, but it was unusual for him to complain to the hokage about it. He, like naruto and lee, had been assigned to show one of the sand triplets around the village. He however, was to take temari around, something he felt was worth complaining about. "why me? Out of all the ninjas in the village, why did you pick me?" he screamed (also unusual) at tsunade. "I already told you! You, like everyone else, where paired because you two fought at the chuunin exam, so you are at least acquainted." "So what? Send tenten, they fought in the exam!" shikamaru quickly responded. "Because, from what I've heard, that wasn't a fight, it was a slaughter! You, on the other hand, could have beaten her if you didn't give up so easily!" by this point tsunade had also succumbed to screaming. Shikamaru, was silent. He had run out of points to make. "hmmph, I guess that makes sense." He said, barely audible. Tsunade smiled at this "so you'll do it?" "No. Way." Shikamaru replied flatly. "why not? You're acting like she's some sort of monster." "Have you ever talked to her? She's infuriating!" "shikamaru, you think everyone's infuriating." He stormed out of tsunades office. This was going to be a very exhausting expirence.  
  
Hinata was happily waiting on a bench. She waited their a lot, always around this time. This spot was very special, because it was between naruto's home and the ramen bar he always ate at. She would wait for about five minutes around this time, which was enough to catch a glimpse of her hero. Of course she hadn't always done this, first she had to convince herself she wasn't some creepy stalker by doing it. These days she could just go up and talk to him, since they had become much better friends. It was more of a habit she didn't want to shake. However hinata didn't know that naruto had been training with lee, which would change his route home. She was about to find out though, since this new route put naruto on this street, and he had just spotted the back of her head. He smiled when he caught sight of her as he ran up and sat beside her. "Hey hinata, what's up?" hinata let out a small yelp "h-hi naruto, I was just resting." She said with a small smile. "Mind if I sit with you? I've got to catch my breath..." "did you train hard today?" hinata asked, never before having heard of naruto being tired. "yeah, sparring with rock lee. I feel like my arms are gonna fall off." They sat in silence for a few minutes, naruto catching his breath and hinata enjoying his company. "n-naruto, are you worried about taking gaara around tonight?" naruto returned to reality, "was I the last person to hear about this?" he said with a smile "I was, but lee said I don't have anything to worry about, so I guess I'll be fine." Hinata looked down at her feet and started pushing her fingers together. When naruto saw this he quickly said "Not that it matters! I've beaten gaara before, and can do it again!" hinata stopped fumbling her fingers and looked up. She saw naruto smiling at her, and she couldn't help but smile back.  
  
The true goal of narutos new 'mission' was not to get the sand triplets accustomed to the village, but to get them to like it. The treaty with the land of the sand said the three had to stay with the leaf for a minimum of two years, time enough to recruit new ninjas. After the two years, it was the triplet's decision whether to stay or not. The three were actually undecided, but they knew they wouldn't return home.  
  
Next chapter: as Itachi draws closer to the village, a new danger also rises. Will the leaf be able to survive naruto, gaara, and lee's night on the town? Will temari and shikamaru kill each other? Will I even bother to write about Kankuro? (no, I won't.)  
  
Thanks for reading! 


	5. Gaaras Tour

Gaara's Tour  
  
Anyone walking by would have missed it, but on a corner of a building in the center of the leaf village there was a tall pole of sand about two feet in diameter. On top of the pole, Gaara stood. This was his form of training. While sparring with neji was at least a challenge, it didn't develop his chakra control. Up until his fight with naruto, he had thought the beast inside of him would always be in control. So, while making the pole from sand was usually no problem, commanding the demon to do it was quite the task.  
  
Now, while no regular person would have noticed the pole, this did not hold true for Ino, who had been walking by. She spotted the red headed boy, and realized he was the perfect person to get some answers from. The questions all having to do with sasuke, who had not been seen for two weeks. She jumped up to the rooftop, "hey, um, Gaara!" she called out. To gaara, this was a pleasant surprise, most people were too afraid to talk to him so casually. "Yes?" he said while lowering himself to the ground. Ino wasn't afraid of gaara because both her teammates told her he was fine, but she had been expecting that he would just ignore her. She didn't have another question, so she asked the first thing that came to her mind "You know at the chuunin exam?" "what about it?" "well, who was the one who... beat you?" she asked, her fear of gaara resurfacing for a bit. "Naruto." Gaara plainly stated, but was actually confused. Who else could have beaten him? "Wow. So he really is stronger than sasuke..." ino thought out loud "And naruto brought sasuke back by himself?" "yes." The was a long pause until the next question "are you stronger than sasuke?" "Yes. Sasuke really has a reputation for being strong, doesn't he?" "yeah, at the academy, he was by far the strongest. Coincidentally, naruto was the weakest." "true strength cannot be gauged at a school, only on the battle field." Gaara stated, as if he was answering a question. Ino looked up, a little afraid. Gaara looked down and seeing her discomfort, gave her a small smile. She relaxed and smiled back.  
  
(narutos home) naruto had about 5 hours before he and lee were to show gaara around the village. Naruto was sleeping on his couch ever since he had gotten back home. He probably would have slept through the 'mission' if there hadn't been a knock at his door to wake him up. Naruto stumbled over to the door, to find his visitor was sakura. "Hey naruto." "hey sakura!" naruto did promise himself he would try to move on from sakura since he found how much she liked sasuke, but with her actually in his room he quickly forgot about that. Sakura on the other hand was suprised by narutos room. The walls were almost completely bare, save for a few posters with famous ninjas. He didn't even have any pictures of his parents. She knew he was an orphan, but she thought he'd at least have a picture. "So... is there something you need, or you just come to hang out" naruto asked hopefully. "Little of both," sakura replied, along with her first real smile in weeks, "I actually came here to say thank you. So... thank you." "No problem! Wait, thanks for what." Naruto said, completely clueless. "For keeping your promise." Sakura replied. They sat on his couch for awhile before sakura spoke again, "Naruto, I know this shouldn't matter, but how did you beat him?" narutos face lit up, happy to tell any of his victory stories, "well, I super charged my r-""that's not what I meant." "huh?" sakura paused for a moment. "I mean, how did you get so much stronger. I know you're a strong ninja, but why did Jiraiya agree to train you? And why is the Akastsuki after you?" sakuras smile had faded, leaving only worry on her face. Naruto opened his mouth to answer, then quickly closed it. "I-I can't tell you that. I'm sorry." Was all he whispered out. He wanted to tell her, or anyone, but he knew she wouldn't understand about the Kyubi. If he told her, he would lose every friend he had, all the people he had worked his whole life just so they would acknowledge him. "Naruto, I wouldn't tell anyone." "Don't say that. You don't know what it is." Sakura looked naruto, she had never seen him so quiet. "Naruto, it's fine." Naruto looked up. "But if you do ever want to tell me, I promise I won't tell anyone."  
  
(7pm) sakura had stayed at narutos home for awhile. They both had lost track of time, sakura was surprised that she could actually enjoy narutos company. This could have lasted all night, if rock lee hadn't pounded down the door. Judgement hour had arrived, and no one was fearing it more than gaara. But getting dragged to all the best training spots within a twenty mile radius by lee only for naruto to pull him to any place where you could slack off if you didn't want to do a mission, while exhausting, wasn't something gaara hated. If you want hatred, then shikamaru was the right person to talk to.  
  
"C'mon, pick up the pace!" Temari taunted at her disgruntled tour guide. "ugh... why don't you just slow down? You going to have at least two goddamned years to see the village!" shikamaru shouted right back at her. He had no idea why he bothered to show up for this stupid mission, at the moment he was thinking that he didn't want to give temari the satisfaction. But really it was because of his code, which said that a man can't lose to a woman, but he also can't keep her waiting. "At least two years? Hah. If you think I'm staying in this dump for a second longer than I have to..." This caught shikamaru's attention "your from the parking lot known as the sand village, and you're calling this a dump? What the hells wrong with it?" Temari thought about this. The leaf village was nicer than the sand, she was actually very comfortable. And she knew that her father wouldn't send anymore assassins, since that would break the peace treaty. "well," she looked up at the sky, "the village is to bright." Shikamaru sneered at this, "yeah, that's from the lights. Do they not have lights back at the sand village?" Temari, for once, ignored the insult, "I mean you can't see the stars..." This surprised shikamaru, "well that might not be true..." temari looked over. "There's this place I watch the clouds, I could show you if you want." He trailed off a bit, he had never shown anyone his spot, much less any woman. Temari smiled, "I would love that" she said gently. For the first time in his life, shikamaru blushed. He motioned for her to follow him, and they walked off. "Hey, I thought I told you to pick up the pace!" temari shouted, still smiling. Shikamaru stopped, "y'know, you're not like the other girls around here." It was temari's turn to blush, "r- really?" "yeah, they all hide their feelings, and put on a mask to impress a boy. A boy they don't think would care about the real them, but not you." Temari started blushing furiously. Shikamaru added "You just act like a bitch." Temari stopped blushing and chased after him. Needless to say, shikamaru picked up the pace.  
  
(11pm) Naruto had finally dragged gaara and lee to the ramen bar. Gaara was happy to have something to eat, but lee still had tons of energy. About the time their food arrived, neji and hinata walked in. hinatas eyes widened at her luck, getting to be with naruto twice in one day. Without thinking, she rushed to sit next to naruto, pushing lee out of his chair. Lucky for her, lee was polite enough not to mention it. Neji took the seat next to gaara, "I'm so glad I'm not you." He said, motioning to gaaras entourage. Naruto turned around, "So, Gaara, you like our little town?" he asked with a big smile. Gaara was quite for a minute. "I like it very much." He finally said, with an almost nonexistent smile.  
  
The journey had gone much quicker than expected. Itachi knew to get the results he desired he would have to wait a few days. In one week, orochimaru would be dead, and sasuke would know just how inferior he was.  
  
Next chapter: is sasuke strapped for time? How will orochimaru factor in? and why the hell is Itachi so damn cocky? He's not that strong! Right?  
  
To all who read this far, Thanks! 


	6. biding time

I own nothing  
  
Biding time  
  
(The rooftops of the hidden leaf, 2 am) shikamaru and temari had been sitting quietly for the last two hours, watching the stars. Shikamaru looked down at his watch, "damn, no wonder I'm so tired..." "what's the matter, your mommy want you home by ten?" temari laughed. Shikamaru shrugged it off, "one off my rules. Go to bed at midnight, wake up at noon." Temari laughed again. "well if you want to see the rest of the village, we should get going." Shikamaru said, getting up. "actually, I'm pretty tired to. Besides I have my whole life to see it, right?" this startled shikamaru, "so you've decided to stay?" temari realized what she had said. "yeah, I guess I have."  
  
(the home of the sand triplets, 2:30 am) Temari crept through the door, as to not wake her brother Kankuro. She had decided to stay in the leaf, but she doubted that her family would share her enthusiasm, she sat down on the couch, next to her brother gaara, intending to find out what he thought of the village. "So, Gaa-"she stopped herself, noticinmg gaara was sleeping. And unlike like his usual sleep, he was calm and still. The last time she saw him sleep, he wasa kicking wildly, digging his nails into his skin. She smiled, "maybe we can stay here after all."  
  
(Streets of the leaf, 8am) Kakashi and tsunade stood over a dead ANBU. The interesting thing about this coarpse was, that to an untrained eye, he had no wounds on the body. but tsunade did not have ordinary eyes. "there is an incision in his neck. The reason you can't see it is because it was stiched shut from the inside. An act that takes a large amount of skill. Could it have been orochimaru's servant, kabuto? He was a very skilled medical ninja." Kakashi stopped inspecting the body. "no, he was never anywhere near this strong. And besides I've seen this technique before. He was paralyzed out of fear, an effect of the sharingan eye." Tsunade looked up. "the situation has grown critical. I'm going to take sasuke into my custody." Kakashi said before disappearing.  
  
(Jail cell in the leaf, 9 am) sasuke was in shackles. He had been in schackles since he was released from the hospitalone week ago. He has yet to speak a word, probably because he was still struck speechless. Because ewo weeks ago he had been defeated by dead last naruto. This was impossible. No matter how much naruto had improved, he should not have been able to beat sasuke while he had thecurse seal active. sasuke would have undoubtedly spent the whole day thinking about this if the door hadn't been opened, with his former master ealkin into his cell. "come on sasuke, I'm taking you out of hear." "why?" sasuke hadn't spoken in two weeks, so his voice was very hoarse."because you just might be in alittle trouble, so I think you'll be better off with me." Kakashi answered in a cheerful manner. Sasukes mind was set on fire with questions.  
  
(naruto's home, noon) Naruto had been sleeping since he and lee had left gaara last night. He would have slept more, except he was woken by a loud knock at his door. He yawned at slowly walked to the door, wondering who it could be so early in the morning. "maybe it's sakura or hinata!" he thought, not sure of who he would rather it be. In fact once naruto thought about it, he had become more popular with the ladies ever since he brought back sasuke. After all, two girls showing some interest was infinitly better than zero, right? But when he opened the door, he saw it wasn't one of his many female fans, but Iruka! "Hey naruto! Let me go buy you some ramen, I've got a gift for you." Naruto's eyes lit up and the two took off for the ramen stand. After naruto finished his second bowl, he turned to Iruka. "hey, what do you have in the bag, sensei?" he asked. "naruto, I'm glad you asked! This is a gift, and a recognition of your sucess." Iruka handed naruto the bag. "cool, a flak jacket... wait does this mean?" "that's right. Congrats, you have been promoted to chuunin." And there wasn't a person in the village who didn't hear him shout the rest of the way home.  
  
Sakura waited outside of naruto's home, waiting to give him a gift. Yesterday she had been to his house and noticed there weren't any pictures. In her arms was the only picture she had of their whole class together, which she was going to give him. She waited patiently, not knowing she was being watched. Not her exactly but naruto's home. Itachi was waiting for a glimpse of the boy who was able to overcome the curse seal and the sharingan. he also waited patiently, because he knew in three days, he would have enough battle to satisfy even him.  
  
Thanks to everyone who has read this far, a more thanks to anyone who reviewed. More soon. 


	7. Team 7's Reunion

I don't own naruto  
  
Team 7 Reunion  
  
Naruto had been running through the streets of the leaf telling anyone who would listen about his promotion to chuunin. He had spent about thirty minutes running around before he returned home to find sakura waiting for him outside of his apartment, because this was the one day naruto locked his dorr. His day just kept getting better. "Hey, Sakura! What're you doing here?" "I came to see you, of course." Naruto paused, a girl coming to see him felt off somehow. "Great! What do you need?" "Actually, I wanted to give you a gift." Okay, that definitely never happened, naruto thought as he started blushing. Naruto quickly turned around to unlock his door. Sakura had noticed he was blushing, and was actually a little flattered. As they walked into naruto's home, sakura readied her gift. "Here naruto." "what is it?" naruto asked ripping open the paper it was wrapped in. "oh cool! It's the picture from the day we graduated." "I thought you'd like it. This was the second picture taken, something happened to the first one." What had happened was Iruka had called back the class saying the first photo had gone missing, which was a lie. He called the whole class back so naruto could be in the picture. While naruto was scanning his apartment for a place to put the photo, sakura noticed he was wearing a flak jacket. "N-naruto... does that jacket mean you're a-a..." "That's right, I was just made a chuunin today! About damn time to." Sakura couldn't believe it. Out of the entire class naruto had been the second to be promoted to chuunin. She smiled at her teammates accomplishment. She was proud to know him.  
  
(kakashi's house) "how did you arrange to have me released? You may be an elite ninja, but you don't have the influence to have a traitor released." Sasuke had been demanding answers ever since he had been released into kakashi's custody. "Your imprisonment wasn't doing anyone any favors. Considering what's about to happen, you being confined to a cell would definitely be counter productive" Kakashi replied. He still hadn't told sasuke that Itachi was lurking around the leaf. He also didn't tell sasuke that orochimaru would most likely be arriving at the village to collect sasuke. Orochimaru would naturally think sasuke was still in the hospital after being hit by the raesangan, because he didn't really know how much endurence sasuke had. "oh, by the way, you can stop calling yourself a traitor. You still have no idea how much the curse seal affects your mind." Kakashi added, trying in vain to boost sasuke's spirit. "I don't believe that and neither will anyone else." Sasuke said flatly. "Don't be so negative. Just tell them you got lost while walking down the road of life..." "That never works." "well, you better hope it works, because you're going to go meet naruto and sakura right now." "WHAT! The hell I am!" sasuke panicked. He didn't give a damn what naruto thought, but he couldn't face sakura. Not after he had left her to go with the sound nins. "move it sasuke. They do deserve an explanation, or at least an apology." Kakashi ordered. Sasuke knew he was right.  
  
Naruto and sakura walked together to the meeting place. Walking was difficult for naruto, because he was shaking with anticipation. They hadn't been assigned a mission in what seemed like forever. Plus this would be his first mission as a chuunin, which doubled his excitement. Sakura had decided they should walk, so for once they could make kakashi wait. Neither of them knew they weren't going to receive a mission, but be reintroduced to their teammate. As they neared the bridge where they always meet, they indeed saw their teacher waiting for them. It wasn't until they got closer that sasuke stepped out from the shadows. Sakura stopped in her tracks, while naruto instantly readied himself for a fight. Sasuke first looked at sakura, taking note of how hurt she was. He then looked at naruto, and then prepared himself for a rematch. Kakashi stepped in, "hey, none of that. You may not like it, but you three are a team. You have to be able to count on each other, not trying to kill each other!" kakashi would have continued his speech he spent all night writing, but sakura took off crying, leaving the three to fix their problem themselves. "good going, jackass. Why didn't you just stay in your hospital bed?" naruto shouted at sasuke. ""shut up, dimwit." "both of you shut up. Sasuke go find and apologize to sakura. Naruto, try and give them a few minutes." Naruto shrugged, "fine." Sasuke was about to chase after sakura when kakashi added "oh, and congrats on your promotion naruto." Sasuke finally noticed naruto's flak jacket and his eyes filled with hate.  
  
Sakura had ran for about a half a mile until she broke down. It took sasuke seconds to track her down. "Sakura..." sakura's face was buried into her legs. "G-go away." She managed to say in between sobs. Sasuke crouched down beside her, staying silent. This was a foreign situation for him. "sakura... I'm sorry." She moved her head up just enough to see him. "why... did you leave?" "kakashi said the curse seal had some influence over me... but I'm not sure that's true. I wanted more power, and orochimaru offered it." Sakura had stopped crying. Although she didn't want to admit it, it was good to hear his voice again. "but if naruto was able to stop me while I was using the curse seal at full power, then orochimaru's power couldn't have been that great." Sasuke was speaking very gently to sakura, and she was blushing a little. "sakura, I haven't told anyone this, but I think my body absorbed some of the power from the curse seal, so I did get stronger. I don't regret laeving the village, but I do regret leaving you. I'm sorry." Sakura was silent for awhile. She then looked up at sasuke. "I-I forgive you." Sasuke was stunned. He thought she would hate him forever, then he had a flashback. When he was about to leave she told him she loved him. It never really clicked until now. Sasuke made up his mind, and leaned into sakura, about to kiss her. But she lightly pushed him away. "sasuke I do forgive you, but I don't think I can love you anymore." At that she got up and quickly raced off, leaving sasuke to curse himself.  
  
Naruto sat alone on a bench in a park, what had started as the perfect day had officially been ruined. In his mind, there was no doubt that sakura was swooning over sasuke. He wanted nothing more than to go spy on them, but he gave kakashi his word that he would stay put. "H-hello naruto..." a small voice came from beside him, a voice naruto instantly recognized "hey hinata!" naruto greeted the shy girl, putting on his smile. He then gestured for hinata to sit down with him, which made her eyes light up as she accepted the offer. "I-I see the rumor's are true..." Naruto looked at her quizzically, expecting her to be talking about sasuke. "you're a chuunin now... just like shikamaru." She continued. Naruto was happy for the change of subject. "Yeah! About time right?" he shouted. Hinata smiled and nodded in agreement. "Y'know, I haven't really celebrated yet! How about we go get some dinner together?" Hinata's heart almost stopped. "y-y- yes!" was all she could get out. Naruto was confused by her excess stuttering, but decided to ignore it. "All right! Lets GO!" he shouted grabbing hinata's hand and running off to the nearest restaurant. If he had looked back he would seen hinata's face was red and glowing.  
  
Itachi looked up. The time had finally come. After waiting in the village for days, he was finally ready to attack. He stood up, and raced to his first opponent.  
  
Thanks to everyone whose been reading. And do you think I should make this narutoXhinata or narutoXsukura? 


	8. Itachi vs

I. own. NOHING.  
  
Itachi vs. Gai/Kakashi  
  
Gaara stood atop his sand pillar once again, trying to tame shuku. He had had some minor success, he had even managed to fall asleep for about an hour before shuku took over. But what gaara was most proud of was that when the demon did take over gaara was able to lead him to the woods outside the village. If anyone looked out there, they would see a whole herd of slaughtered deer, but no people. So, gaara continued to train, with hopes of total control one day. He had picked a certain part of the village to train in, in front of a little flower shop, although he had no idea why. It just brought him a little peace of mind. He stared at the flower shop until two people caught his eye. It was naruto and that girl from the chuunin exam, neji's realitive. Gaara realized he was being distracted and went back to meditation.  
  
Naruto and hinata walked through the town together, trying to find a restaurant. Theu finally found a slightly nicer noodle house than naruto ussually went to. Not that hinata cared, he could have taken her to a vending machine and she still would be happy. After they had finished eating naruto told her about all the battles he had been in. this was the first time naruto had someone his age to tell about his great accomplishments. Naruto had no idea that he would soon have a new story to tell.  
  
Itachi walked to the hospital where sasuke had been held, not knowing he had since recovered. Itachi had long since memorized every building in the leaf village, even the seceret parts of the hospital, so it was no trouble getting in. What he didn't know was what type of resistance he would meet. He assumed they knew he was in the village, and there would be several ANBU, not that it would matter. He moved through the hospital halls (disguised of course) noticing how much nicer it seemed then the last time he was there. It seemed cleaner, he could see his reflection in the floor. The last time he was there, the floors were covered with the blood of his family. He had snuck in to make sure they were dead. Not that he thought for a second that any doctor could have saved them, but he needed to be sure. He opened a secret passage and slowly descended down, for a much needed family reunion.  
  
Sakura had been using a training doll the whole day. She felt like she needed something to hit , but every time she started getting a good momentum, her mind would drift back to the events of the last week, in particular sasuke trying to kiss her. She sat down, winded. "I can't believe I stopped him," she said to herself "a week ago I would have lept all over him." She stayed quite for a minute "WHATS WRONG WITH ME?" she shouted. "your opening stance is faulty, your thrust with the kunia isn't deep enough, and you need more speed to make a deep enough wound." Was the cold response she got. She jumped up to see neji looking down on her. Lucky for sakura, he hadn't heard her earlier debate with herself. "W-why were you spying on me." She demanded. "This is my training spot. Thank you for ruining my training dummy by the way." Sakura blushed. "ummm... sorry." "hmph. Don't worry about it." Sakura sighed out of relief. "so what are you training for?" neji asked. "what, I can't train everyday like you?" sakura asked, trying to cover the fact why she was training. But without missing a beat neji answered "You don't need to develop fighting skills. That's something your team excels in. The greatest asset you bring is you mind." Sakura decided that neji said that to call her smart not weak. "Thanks, but I'm sick of those two always having to protect me." Neji, although he would never admit it, could relate. He was still considered the strongest of his team, but every once in awhile he got the felling lee had surpassed him. "well, if you really want to get better, I'll train you." Sakura thought for a minute "that would be great!" she said with a smile, secertly hoping she'll survive.  
  
Itachi opened the door which lead into sasuke's old room. He quickly moved in the dark over to the bed, threw off the covers, only to find a dummy. Before he could react he was blind sided with a kick to the back of the head. Itachi rolled into the kick, and quickly regained his composure. As soon as he stood up the lights flashed on, much brighter than the rest of the hospital. Itachi quickly recognized his attacker as Gai and the man standing next to him as Kakashi. Itachi also realized the floors were so clean so Gai could fight without being in danger of the sharingan. "Hmmm... what a clever tactic. This makes my sharingan almost pointless. Not that I'd need it against you scum." "what do you want sasuke for? You've never shown intrest in him until now." Kakashi asked. "Hah, sasuke is just the smallest of pawns for whats about to happen. Now tell me where he is." Kakashi was sick of talking. He charged itachi while gai tried to nail him in the back of the head, but itachi quickly caught gai and threw him into kakashi. "ugh... this isn't going to be easy." Gai muttered. "actually, it's going to be very easy." Itachi said, knowing there was no way he would be defeated here. Instantly he charged the two warriors on the ground giving them both what would have been a death blow had they not both vanished into thin air when he touched them. "Clones?" Itachi said, his eyes bulging. Before he could react he was tied up with gai's bandages and hurled into the air. While gai prepared the initial lotus in the air, kakashi prepared the chidori for itachi to land on. "this will hurt a bit more than the kick I gave you!" Gai shouted. "I'll take your word for it." Itachi said as he slipped out of gai's grasp, replacing himself with kakashi. "Wha- AGH!" gai screamed, as he wass accidentally cut by the chidori. Even with the immense pain, he freed kakashi from the lotus, but not soon enough, as kakashi was sent flying to the ground. Both of the elite ninjas had been incapacitated in one move, a simple substitution which cost Itachi almost no chakra. But he did notice that last attack was for killing. The leaf did know of his presence, and had no intention of letting him live. Not that it would matter he thought to himself.  
  
At the moment, gaara was sharing soup with the girl from the flower shop, ino. He liked ino, because she was about the only girl with enough confidence to talk to gaara. This probably meant she was a little full of her self. "Hey, gar!" he looked up, he had gotten used to her nickname for him. "Did ya hear? They found a bunch of dead deer just outside of town! It looks like some big badger or something tried to eat them all whole! Isn't that weird?" Gaara paused "so, what's this soup made out of?" he said, this being the first time he ever felt he had to change the subject. Ino was about to tell him when gaara spun around sensing a powerful presence. "Gaara, is something wrong?" ino asked, she had never seen gaara unnerved before. "What's he doing here?" gaara said to himself.  
  
Naruto and hinata had moved to a park after the meal, and naruto was still telling her about his adventures. "There were three of them see. A frog, a snake, and a slug, all three bigger than any building in the village and..." naruto trailed off, feeling something familiar. "N-naruto?" hinata grabbed his arm to make sure he was okay. Naruto was silent for a moment. "This can't be good."  
  
Two individuals walked the streets of the village. One had blonde hair and thick glasses, the other had pale skin contrasting his pitch black hair. "well kabuto, let's go retrieve my pupil." "yes Orochimaru."  
  
Next chapter: finally, Itachi's chosen opponent has arrived, but will the two get to fight? or will naruto and the others be able to defeat the double threat?  
  
Thanks to everyon who read and reviewed! I am sorry to say my next update won't be for at least a week. Sorry. Gotta go to some camp bull shit. I am not bitter. 


	9. The Sharingan Sword

I don't own naruto  
The Sharingan Sword  
  
Sakura slid on the ground for what seemed like the hundredth time that day. She was covered in dirt, bruises, and a little blood. Opposite her stood neji, who didn't have a speck of dirt on him. They had been training for the last two hours together, and despite how much she wanted to complain, sakura knew this was the best training she could get. So she struggled to her feet, and once again positioned herself to attack again. Neji noticed how much she was struggling. "here, drink this." He said as he offered her a bottle of water. "I gasp thought you said no gasp rest til hour four." She said, wanting to get the most out of his training. "Yes, but it's more important for you to live till hour four." He stated plainly. Sakura smiled at the first almost joke neji ever made.  
  
Because they were so far out in the woods, sakura and neji were the only two ninjas in the village who didn't know what was going on. Most every ninja had been assigned to a location, there were only three disobeyed. Gaara, who could care less about the authority of the leaf village. The second was hinata, who had been ordered home for her safety. She was halfway home when she realized she felt safe with naruto, and turned around to find him. The third was naruto himself, who knew if he was the one to beat Itachi, then the village would finally recognize him as the strongest ninja ever!  
  
Itachi once again cloaked himself in the shadows. He was greatly outnumbered and besides that, there were not one but two ninjas in the village that might be stronger than he was. All three of the legendary ninjas were in the village, but Itachi only considered Jirayia and Tsunade to be threats. Orochimaru had always seemed weak in his eyes. But two survive long enough to kill orochimaru, Itachi knew he needed a hostage. Taking a hostage was an idea he hated, it seemed like something a weakling would do. As he was thinking this, the perfect hostage walked by. She was small weak and important. He recognized her at once. The heir to the most prestigious house in the village. He jumped down and swung what was a weak punch for him. Hinata dodged with all her speed, recovered, and hit him full force in the arm with the gentle fist. "AHHHHHH!" Itachi screamed, while striking hinata down with his right arm. It had been so long since he had last felt pain. He smiled, maybe there was some worth left in this village. He was about to gather his new hostage until his body jerked away in time to dodge a club. He looked up, surprised to see his attacker with familiar red hair. There was indeed worth in this village. Gaara threw several axes in Itachi's direction, which were easily dodged. Itachi appeared behind Gaara to deliver a blow to the head but was stopped by a wall of sand. He jumped back as several spears emerged from the ground. Itachi now remembered he was fighting Gaara, so his attacks would have to be swift to connect. Itachi once again ran towards his enemy, but this time sank into quicksand Gaara had brought up. Not one to miss an oppurtunity like this, Gaara quickly covered Itachi in sand, hoping to smother him. He quickly realized something was wrong, but not in time to avoid the kick to his right cheek from the real Itachi, not the clone covered in quicksand. This could be a long fight Gaara thought to himself.  
  
Naruto had been running around the village for about thirty minutes until he heard a loud scream. He turned around and ran in that direction. He arrived quickly enough, in time to see Gaara and Itachi fighting. He was then horrified by what he saw, hinata was on the ground, bleeding from her forehead. He quickly rushed over to her and propped her head on his lap, while he ripped of part of his jacket to bandage the wound. "Hinata, I promise I'm going to make him pay for this." Naruto said, more filled with hate than he ever had been before. He lunged at Itachi, but right as he was about to grab his neck from behind, all three fighters were swatted by a large snake tail. "what is thissss? Itachi, are you fighting with children?" orochimaru asked, now having two arms.  
  
Sasuke jumped through the rooftops of the village. It had taken him a whole two minutes to lose the guards assigned to him, once he had heard who was in town. He got close enough to see the gaint snake, which stopped him dead in his tracks. "Orochimaru's here?" he excliamed to himself. Then he must be fighting Itachi. Sasuke shook his head and doubled his speed. He couldn't allow Itachi to be killed. Not yet.  
  
Kakashi was also racing across town, barely conscious from receiving lotus from Gai. However, Kakashi knew he wouldn't be much more than a spectator, to the two powerful forces clashing. His only intention was to keep Sasuke from fighting. His body was still in bad shape, he was just too stubborn to admit it. But at least something good would come of this, Sasuke would never run away to Orochimaru again.  
  
"Tell me, Orochimaru, were you thoughtful enough to bring your ring with you?" Itachi asked, not wanting to go to the sound village to retrieve it. "What would it matter? You're going to die right here." Was his response. Around the two Sasuke had just arrived and was about to attack them both, until Kakashi held him down. "Let go!" Sasuke tried to scream but was muffled by Kakashi's hand. "It's almost over." Gaara began to stir, more annoyed than hurt. "Uhhh... how was I blind sided?" he muttered. Naruto was once again tending to Hinata's body. She hadn't really been hit, but Naruto couldn't be sure. Itachi saw all of the spectators in an instant, and quickly revealed a katana made of what looked like crystal from under his cloak. When Orochimaru saw this, he rushed to knock Itachi down, but it was too late. Itachi lined the sword up with his eyes, activated the sharingan. With that Orochimaru doubled over, as thousands of cuts appeared on his body. "H-hate... you." were his last words. "Not enough, it seems." Itachi replied, a small smile on his face. He turned around and slowly looked at each of the spectators as they backed up, except for one. Naruto charged him with all he had, but Itachi quickly disappeared. Sasuke fell to his knees. "W-what the hell was that?" Kakashi looked down. "that was your family's heritage, as well as the reason Itachi killed them." Sasuke turned white. "what?" you see, whoever holds that sword is the heir to your family. To avoid the tension between branches of the family, it is rotated between first and second born. Your father was the first born." Sasuke didn't say anything. "what it does is it enhances the illusion of the sharingan. The illusion usually has someone see their greatest fear or worst memory. With the sword though, it tricks the mind so completely what the mind thinks is happening will actually come to be. As seen with Orochimaru's cuts." Sasuke stayed silent. "I know this is a lot to take at once, but you have to hear this. Orochimaru only wanted your eyes to be immune from this spell. He would not, and could not, make you stronger than Itachi." Sasuke started crying. "Sasuke?" Kakashi was not expecting this. "I would have let him have it" was all he said.  
  
well thanks once again to everyone whose read this far. I'm happy to say the story is just about half over. So keep voting on if you want hina/naru or saku/naru! And special thanks to everyone who reviewed! 


	10. tournament

I don't own Naruto  
Tournament  
  
(the Leafs hospital) Hinata lay motionless in her bed. Two days had passed since Orochimaru had been killed, but she wouldn't know it. She had been unconscious ever since Itachi had struck her down. The only person who had moved as little as her was Naruto, who had stayed by her side for the whole two days not sleeping. Neji had stayed for awhile as well, furious with himself that he hadn't been there.  
  
The door opened but Naruto didn't look up. Gaara looked at the bedridden girl and then walked over to naruto. "I'm sure you know the doctors say she will be up soon." "I'll be here until that happens." Naruto quickly replied, Gaara was not the first person to give naruto that argument. Gaara saw there was no point in continuing the discussion, so he changed the topic. "I'll assume since you haven't left this room, you haven't heard about the tournament." For the first time in two days, naruto looked up. Gaara continued, "Your Hokage has decided to hold a one on one tournament to rank younger ninja, such as ourselves. She figured the Atksuki might return to this village, since both of us are here." "When is it?" "One month. But I'd like to fight you before that." Once again, naruto looked up. "I have been trying to tame my demon, to be able to use its full power. I'd like to test myself against someone who has a mastery over a demon." Gaara explained. "I wouldn't say I have a mastery, but I will train w-""a mastery over what?" a small voice uttered. Naruto quickly turned around to see Hinata smiling up at him. Before she could ask him again, naruto picked her up and started spinning her around. Gaara quickly walked out the door, giving the two their privacy.  
  
(another hospital, far away) Itachi lay on the table, waiting for the operation to begin. He had suffered a number of wounds at the village, but the only one he couldn't heal himself was the one hinata had inflicted upon him. She had pumped so much charka into his opening point that it caused his whole left arm to swell up. He had survived much worse. Suddenly he jerked up, just in time to dodge several poisonous darts. Before his attacker had time to react, Itachi picked up a scalpel and effortlessly shoved into the attackers' neck. Itachi looked down on him. The man had blonde hair and thick glasses. The doctor walked in and glanced at the body, unfazed. "who was he?" the doctor asked, amused. "One of Orochimaru's lapdogs, I presume." The doctor shrugged, this was to be expected when dealing with the Atksuki.  
  
Sasuke lay in bed, reflecting over what he now knew. He had witnessed Itachi, the man he had sworn to kill, easily dispose of Orochimaru. Orochimaru, the man who had promised him power. For the first time sasuke saw how great the gap between him and his brother was, and he was unnerved. There was no way he could do it alone. And the only ones who would help him he had turned down one too many times. "There has to be someone stronger."  
  
Shikamaru and Temari were sitting up on one of the roofs of the village staring at the clouds. "Man, I cannot believe all the crap that happens in one day here. Is it always this bad?" Temari asked, breaking the silence. "Hmm... a lot does happen here. I'm just glad I was able to sit this one out." Shikamaru replied. "I still don't believe you're as lazy as everyone says." "that's your problem." The two debated back and forth for a few minutes until; "well if you're so lazy, I guess you won't be entering the tournament." Shikamaru sat up. "I'm already a chuunin, why would I enter?" "It's open for chunnins as well." Temari replied. Shikamaru already knew all this; he just enjoyed arguing with Temari. "The tournament is to judge strengths and weaknesses. Mine are obvious, I'm an excellent strategist but I'm somewhat lacking in the physical department." "Hah! 'somewhat'?" temari laughed. "I don't know why I hang around you, you're far too troublesome."  
  
Gaara was once again meditating, alone this time. All other ninjas were visiting Hinata, which was a relief to gaara. He was glad to have friends for once but sometimes felt awkward around them. There were very few places to be alone in the village. This was about to be proven, as Sakura walked up behind him. "What do you want?" Gaara demanded. Sakura faltered for a moment, but quickly recovered. "I heard you plan to fight naruto." "How did you hear about that?" Gaara asked, surprised that news had traveled so fast. "Every ninja in our class is talking about it." Sakura stated as if it was common knowledge. "I see. Well, I assure you this will only be training. I have no intention of killing him." Gaara said. He was sad, but not surprised, that sakura did not trust him. But he was surprised about what she said next. "I know you won't kill him. What I wanted to ask you was to take the fight very seriously." "Why's that? Aren't you two teammates?" Gaara asked. "Yes, but I realized awhile back I don't know anything about him. If he's able to beat you and sasuke then he has strength that I've never seen before." "Didn't you see his fight with Neji?" "It's not the same." Was all sakura could say. She was incredibly ashamed of herself for not seeing his strength earlier. Gaara saw this and remembered that not everyone knew about narutos demon. He looked at sakura, who was barely keeping herself together. "Okay. I'll do it."  
  
(hokages office) Tsunade, Jiraya, and a small group of elite ninjas were meeting with a spy of sorts. "so, tell us about yourself." Tsunade asked in her nicest voice possible. The spy in question was a man, wearing a white robe, a little taller than Kakashi. He had been born in the village but left many years ago, (the reason will be in the next chapter) in the time he had been gone, he had become a high level samurai. (not like those douche bags Gato employed) That would have been an acceptable answer, but what he chose to say was a little different. "Cut the bullshit you old hag," everyone in the room cringed as tsunades smile became filled with rage, "I'm sure you have some stupid file on me. The only reason I came back to this shithole was to pay respect to the third. I'm giving you the info you asked for because I'm a nice guy." Tsunades anger sudsided. "Fine, then tell us what you know of the Atksuki." The samurai sat up in his chair. "Well, I know of five members. The first two are Itachi and that loser fish guy, but you know about them already. The third guy is named Goturo. He carries no weapons, choosing to use his fists instead. He is seven foot six and weighs around 400 pounds. He's not fat though, the weight comes from metal he had grafted to the outside of his body. It covers all vital points. Better send someone fast against him. The fourth guy is Akarus, a total freak. He had his arms and legs permanently converted into charka, which gives him explosive power. Instead of arms and legs he has eight metal limbs, kinda like swords, that he can make move through some sort of spell. The fifth guy was Orochimaru, but there's no point in going into that right?" "thank you, this is very helpful." Tsunade replied. Without saying another word the samurai got up and left, only to be followed by Kakashi.  
  
"Your name is Hisindo, right?" Kakashi called out. The samurai stopped. "yeah." "Listen, I was in the meeting an-" "I saw you; you were the guy who came in late." "right... how long ago did you leave this village?" Hisindo stopped and thought, "I guess about fourteen years ago." Kakashi was pleased to hear this. "Good, I thought you might have left because you had something against Naruto." "who the hell is naruto?" kakashi was thrown a little by this. "Well, his full name is Uzumaki Naruto." Hisindos eyes bulged "I have a brother?"  
  
well that's it for this chapter. And to anyone concerned, hisindo is not going to become any sort of main character. Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed. 


	11. Family Reunion

I don't own Naruto, but if I knew the guy who did, I'd beg him to stop taking a break  
  
New Teams  
  
Naruto and Sakura were waiting at team seven's usual meeting place. They had been waiting for ninety minutes now, and both of their tempers were flaring. Mostly Naruto was the one enraged, Sakura was glad for the chance to get to know Naruto better. She decided to break the silence, "So... what do you think we're here for? I know we don't have any missions today..." Naruto looked up. "WHAT? We don't have a mission?" he screamed, which caused Sakura to laugh. "Y'know, it wouldn't kill you to read the mission boards." She said in a sweet tone. Naruto was thrown by this, a few weeks ago she would have slugged him for not reading the mission postings. But a lot had happened in the last week. To prove that point, he looked around to see if sasuke was anywhere insight. Naruto had already forgiven Sasuke in his mind, not that he'd ever tell. He just wanted team seven to be complete again. Sakura was able to guess what was on naruto's mind. "Don't worry Naruto, we're doing fine on our own, right?" Naruto grinned, but it wasn't as big as usual. They had been on a few low level missions on their own, and did fine. "You're right Sakura! You have gotten a lot stronger lately, so there won't be any problems." He said, restoring his grin to its normal size.  
  
Suddenly, Kakashi appeared. "Hi guys, sorry I'm late, I was picking up your new teammate!" Naruto whirled around and shouted "I've had enough of your bullshit st- wait... that doesn't sound made up." "It isn't." Gaara said, as he stepped out from behind Kakashi. Naruto started beaming, "ALRIGHT! Now we really have the strongest team! We could even take neji, lee, and tenten!" he shouted. Although in his mind, Tenten was still stronger than Sakura, but what the hell. "I could take Neji, Lee, and Tenten alone." Gaara corrected. Naruto noticed Sakura looked worried, "Wait, does this mean Sasuke isn't coming back?" he asked. Kakashi thought for a moment. "Not necessarily. Gaara's team was split up so there would be teams of four. Sasuke can come back whenever he wants. Now you three get used to each other, I have an errand to run." And with that, Kakashi vanished as quickly as he appeared. The three remaining silent for a moment until naruto broke the silence, "So, who wants ramen?"  
  
Kakashi appeared behind Hisindo. He had been watching naruto during the meeting and the hour before the meeting which kakashi made them wait. "well?" kakashi asked. Hisindo smirked, "he's loud, obnoxious, and the only one in this village with blonde hair. There's no way he isn't related to me." "you are going to meet with him aren't you?" "yeah, he deserves that. I doubt he knows much about mom or dad. So tell me, where can I meet up with him?" "the ramen bar." Kakashi answered without missing a beat.  
  
"Naruto, slow down!" sakura screamed at her teammate, "I thought you wanted to go together! The whole team, you idiot!" Naruto turned his head, about fifty feet ahead of her and Gaara, and shouted "I'm sorry! I forgot I was supposed to meet hinata at the ramen bar today!" sakura stopped in her tracks. She had noticed naruto and hinata had been getting closer ever since Naruto had brought sasuke back. Although Sakura wasn't ready to admit it, she had recently taken a liking toward naruto. She had even turned down a kiss from sasuke. Her mind snapped back to reality when she realized she was being left behind.  
  
By the time Gaara and Sakura arrived at the ramen bar, Naruto had already taken the seat to the left of hinata, the right being taken by neji. "Hey Neji, didn't expect to see you here!" Naruto said. Hinata answered for Neji, "My father has had him guarding ever since I got out of the hospital..." Naruto felt guilty for asking, he knew Hinata and her father didn't get along. "Her father is proud of her for standing up to Itachi." Neji stated, seeing Naruto discomfort. Naruto perked up, "That true?" "y- yes..." Hinata answered. At this time Sakura sat down right next to naruto, and put on her best fake smile, "Hey hinata, I'm glad to see you're feeling better." As she said this she pulled naruto closer to her. "So Naruto, what's good here?" While Naruto barely noticed Sakura's advance, Hinata more than noticed. It actually angered her more than she had ever been. "Umm... N-naruto? Could you check my wound it feels like it's open..." Naruto quickly moved over to hinata, not seeing Sakura's dirty looks. Outside Kakashi smiled underneath his mask. "Huh, Naruto finally gets the attention he wanted, and he doesn't even realize it." He made sure Hisindo was waiting in front of the bar, and then disappeared.  
  
(In front of 3rd hokage's grave) Jiraya and Tsunade stood in front of a recently dug unmarked grave. Jiraya turned to his companion, "Do you think we did the right thing? I mean, if any one finds out who this is..." "No one will find out," Tsunade replied, "besides, it was the third's wish that we all be buried with him." They were silent for a moment, until tsunade started weeping, quietly though. It would take a ninja to notice. She turned around, heading back to the village. A few minutes after she left, Jiraya went to his knees, in a prayer stance. "rest in peace, Orochimaru."  
  
(Back at the ramen bar, an hour later) Naruto sat alone. Hinata and Neji had been the first to leave, not by Hinata's choice, but her father had given strict orders for her to rest over the next few days. Sakura basked in the victory of staying longer, but soon had to go to diner at her own house. Gaara stayed a bit longer, not talking at all, and soon went home. Naruto was on his last bowl (due to financial reasons). Hisindo walked in calmly and sat next to naruto. "Large pork, please." Kakashi was watching from a distance, "good, looks like he's going to be subtle about this..." Naruto looked up, "Hey, That's my favorite!" Hisindo looked down and smiled, "Real coincidence, huh? Want to know a bigger coincidence? We have the same mother and father!" Kakashi groaned to himself and started walking away, "So much for subtle..."  
  
Naruto stared up at the stranger, not really understanding what the stranger had said. Hisindo realized this would take awhile, "Hey buddy, another bowl for my brother here!" "Y-you're lying... I, I, don't..." Naruto stammered. "Hey, I know this is a lot for you to take in, thinking you were alone for so long... Hell I'm in the same boat! I didn't even know I had a little br-" "YOU'RE LYING!" naruto screamed, releasing a shockwave at his brother. Hisindo flew through the air and gracefully landed on his feet. Naruto looked in horror at what he had done, and ran away. (The surrounding woods of the village) Naruto had ran around for a solid fifteen minutes, before he collapsed, confused as hell. "Oh god, I attacked him, he's gonna tell the villagers, and they're gonna run me out of town and... and..." "Hey calm down kid." Narutos head jerked up, once again staring at the man who claimed to be his brother. "W-who are you?" "My name is Uzumaki Hisindo. I'm 29 years old and I'm a high level samurai. And don't worry about me telling the villagers anything, Kakashi already filled me in on your demon situation." Naruto made a faint smile as hisindo handed him a bowl of ramen he got from the bar. "T-thank you..." "Ehh... I already paid for it." Naruto quickly ate the contents of the bowl and looked up. "If you're really my brother, where have you been?" "Kid, today is the first day in 14 years I've been back to this village... I'm sorry to say I didn't even know about you till today." "why'd you leave?" "umm... I think I tell you that story tomorrow, you've been through enough tonight." Naruto's face brightened, "So you're staying? For awhile?" "Yeah this village is gonna need all the help it can get..."  
  
"What do you mean?" "Kid, don't get to worked up about this, but if both you and that Gaara guy are here, you can bet the Atksuki will be here to scoop you two up." Hisindo looked down and saw Naruto was asleep. Smiling, he hoisted naruto onto his back and carried him back to the village. "It's probably better you didn't hear that yet. The biggest thing on a 12 year olds mind should be the next day," he stopped in his tracks, "and how the hell I'm going to find out where you live."  
  
Sorry this took so long to get out... but thanks to every one who has read and reviewed this far. I'll get the next chapter out much quicker. Oh, and send me ideas for couples. 


	12. naruto's nightmare

I don't own Naruto,

(Naruto's home)

It was about 7:30 in the morning when hisindo woke up. He glanced around taking a second to realize where he was. "ugh... I am not going to get used to this" he said, still groggy. It had taken him half the night to find where naruto lived, during which time he must have knocked on half the doors at Konoha. Most people wouldn't have woken up so soon, but it was part of his daily routine. He smirked, "well, since the kid is my brother... he won't mind sharing his food!" he walked over to the cupboard and stared blankly at what he saw. "there must be at least a hundred instant ramens in here. Does he not eat breakfast?" He didn't have time to think anything else, because at that moment naruto barreled into the room, and came to a quick halt when he saw the man standing in his kitchen. He then realized last night hadn't been some weird dream. He had figured it was real though, since he had stopped dreaming that he might have family years ago. "So, you want some breakfast?" naruto asked. "I'll pass."

(Hyuga household)

Hinata yawned in bed, waking up as always at eight a clock. She quickly remembered the great time she had eating with naruto last night, though it hadn't been the ideal scenario. For one thing Neji's presence wasn't exactly welcome, but her main issue had been with sakura. Hinata noticed that sakura had been trying to get closer to naruto all night. Hinata pushed her legs into her chest, resting her head. "S-she had her chance and she blew it focusing on that j-jerk sasuke." Hinata then blushed and scolded herself for thinking such mean thoughts, but remained convinced that sakura was bad for naruto.

(Sakura's room)

Sakura had been awake for the last hour, thinking about last night. "what the hell happened? I was going to tell naruto how I had been feeling recently, but hinata kept pulling him- no way. She can't possibly... no! she's the heir to the most powerful clan, and I thought she had a thing for kiba." Sakura fell back on her bed. "well, it doesn't matter! I'm the one on naruto's team so I'll be the one he'll fall for. Then again, that didn't work with sasuke..." sakura lay motionless, thinking of ways to outdo the shy girl.

Naruto stared at the samurai for a few minutes, this was the first time he had seen him in the clear light of morning. He noticed the blonde hair and blue eyes that no one else in the village seemed to have. (does ino have blue eyes?) He decided they had to be related. He quickly put his trademark smile on, "well, fine then! This will be great! You can teach me a bunch of new secret techniques that I can use to beat down on Gaara when we have to fight again!" hisindo stared blankly at the energetic youngster. "what the hell are you talking about?" Naruto, not missing a beat, jumped beside hisindo and started nudging him, "C'mon you can tell me, you've been traveling around for fourteen years, you gotta know some sweet tricks!" "Umm... Naruto, I don't know if you've picked this up, but I'm not a ninja. I'm a samurai." Naruto thought this over for a second, "So you don't know any jutsus?" "well, I do know a few, two or three..." "That's not a lot." "most samurais don't know any!" hisindo yelled, more than a little annoyed. They were both quite for a few moments. "well isn't there anything besides training you could use help on?" naruto thought back to last night. he wanted to ask some one about the hinata and sakura incident he had, but he didn't trust hisindo enough. He then remembered he had promised to help train hinata for the upcoming tournament. He ran out the door not wanting to keep the shy girl waiting. Hisindo looked around, "I have got to get my own place, this isn't even big enough for one person."

Hinata had arrived at 9:30, thirty minutes before the time she and naruto had agreed upon. She had a habit of arriving fifteen minutes early for most occasions, but naruto was twice as important. Naruto had been feeling guilty, he felt he had let her down when he wasn't able to protect her from Itachi. She didn't feel that way, but she wasn't able to tell naruto. So naruto promised he'd help her learn any technique she wanted. It was now ten and she saw naruto rushing up. Hinata blushed slightly at the thought of naruto hurrying to see her. "Heeey Hinata!" Naruto shouted, "have you decided what move you want me to teach you?" "Kaiten." Hinata said, uncharacteristically fast. Naruto paused to remember his unpleasant expirence with that move back when he fought neji. "damn," he thought to himself, "why couldn't she want to learn the raesangan?" HInata could tell what naruto was thinking, answering his thought "I-if I learned Kaiten, t-then m-my father would truly recognize me..." she said, reverting to her usual sheepish demeanor. "No problem!" Naruto shouted, "I promised I'd help you with any move and I meant it! Now... lie down on your back." Hinata blushed at this request, her imagination sweeping her away. "W-why d-d-do y-you wa-" She stammered. "It's something master Iruka taught me. For you to use Kaiten you need to release chakra from all of your body. Sooo..." he stopped talking as he approached hinata, who was currently lying on the ground, and placed seven leaves on her body. "All you have to do is make these leaves float all together and that'll be a big step." "O-oh... that's very smart naruto." Hinata said. This was the first time naruto had ever been called smart.

Gaara and Sakura waited at team seven's meeting spot, waiting for Kakashi. Sakura was thinking about Naruto's absence, he always had arrived last of team sevens geninns to arrives, but he was never this late. "Tonight I'll tell him," she said to herself, "He'll understand, he always has." She looked over to see Kakashi appear out of thin air, as always. But this time, he was greeted with about thirty sand daggers, which he easily dodged. "You are two hours late." Gaara said, rage building inside him. "Yes well, I got lost walking down the road of life..." Kakashi replied, unfazed that one of his subordinates just tried to kill him. "That... that doesn't make sense." Gaara said, dumbfounded. "Not if you think about it too hard." Kakashi retorted, smiling under his mask. "Now here is your mission for today, it's nothing major, so you don't need to wait for Naruto." Gaara took the piece of paper kakashi was holding and examined it for a minute before speaking, "We have been assigned to find a cat!?!" "well, you both are still lower ninjas..." gaara stared blankly at his new master, "You are an infuriating individual."

Several hours had passed in hinata's training, and she was clearly exhausted. "Okay hinata, just one more time." Naruto yelled. He picked up a few rocks in his hand and pitched them towards hinata. Just in time, hinata created a chakra shield in front of her deflecting naruto's rocks. "Alright, that's enough for today. Tomorrow we'll work on using chakra created from your back." He walked over to help her up, but she was able to stand on her own. "You've gotten a lot stronger hinata! You'll do gre-" "N-naruto... th-thank you for training me..." Hinata interrupted. "Oh!" naruto was a little surprised hinata had it in her to interrupt somebody. "I-I wouldn't ever become s-stronger if it wasn't f-f-for you..." Naurto stared at the shy girl, currently stammering and fumbling her fingers like never before. He could tell she was about say something big, but had no idea what. "I-I love you..." she managed to whisper. Naruto's eyes bulged as she leaned in and lightly pressed her lips against his. Naruto wanted it to last forever, but hinata pulled away quickly, her face redder than it has ever been. Naruto smiled, "H-hinata..." but hinata, afraid she might get turned down, quickly ran away. Naruto stood still, all of a sudden remembering all the times hinata had watched him, thinking of how she could never look him in the eyes. "God... and she's so shy, that must of taken everything she had. I guess she ran cause she thought I might reject her or something. I'll meet her first thing tomorrow and tell her..." naruto laid down on his back, relieved that his girl troubles were finally over. A feeling which would not last the whole night...

Shikamaru was staring up into the clouds, his favorite pastime. As had become normal, he was not alone. Temari was lying right beside him. "Hey Shika?" he smiled at the nickname she had given him, but tried his best to sound annoyed. "Yes, what is it?" "why did you forfeit to me in the chuninn match?" "I told you already, I was out of chakra and didn't have any way of-" "You had plenty of ways. I don't even have my weapons on the same leg as you. So why didn't you?" shikamaru was silent. "I couldn't... because... I just didn't want to hurt you okay!" temari was quite. She had never been spared a blow in her life. But she quickly recovered, "W-why, because you thought I was weak?" "No, I just didn't want to." Temari thought this over, and moved closer into shikamaru.

It was late at night and Naruto was walking back from the ramen bar, headed for home. He was surprised to see a girl standing by his door. He couldn't make out the figure, but ran up hoping it was hinata. He skidded to a stop when he realized it was Sakura. "Hey Sakura! What did you need?" Sakura took a deep breath. "Naruto, have you ever looked at a person, and seen something completely new?" naruto was a little confused about the question, but decided to agree, "Yeah!" "well recently, I saw you in a whole new light. I saw the boy who has always been there for me, the one who always cheered me on. And I nearly died when I thought of all the times I rejected you. In fact, the only thing I've been able to think of lately has been... this." She wrapped her arms around naruto and pressed her lips against him firmly. The kiss naruto had dreamed of for years had finally come, and all he could think as he kissed her back was, "I am sooo fucked."

How did you like it? I'll get another chapter up... eventually! Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed so far!


	13. choice

One day, I will own naruto and on that day you will all tremble! But that day is not in the foreseeable future.

Sakura slowly parted from Naruto, with a satisfied smile on her face, "well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow..." "Y-yeah" Naruto replied, trying to hide how piss scared he was. He quickly ran into his house as soon as sakura turned around. "Oh CRAP! What am I going to do? I-I need help! Hey... this is a great time for some brotherly advice!" It was then he noticed a note posted on the fridge. It read:

Dear Bro,

Since you're growing up, I'm sure you want a room to yourself, and since this dump err... house is kinda small, I'm gonna leave you be. I'll be around town if you need me. I'll call you when I find a place to live, shouldn't take more than a week.

See ya then, Hisindo (your brother)

"Oh just a week, huh? Well, it's good to know you can always rely on family. THE FUCKING FREELOADER!" Naruto screamed at the top of his lungs. He would not be getting much sleep tonight.

(team eights meeting place)

"Great job on the mission today, guys!" Kurenai said approvingly, "You did an especially good job, Hinata! You showed much more confidence!" "Yeah, way to go Hinata!" Kiba shouted while patting hinata on the back, a little to hard for her taste. "Thank you everybody... Oh! I-I have to meet N-naruto for training today, I better get go-" "That reminds me," Shino interrupted, "Naruto said he wouldn't be able to make it today." Hinata looked heartbroken. "D-did h-he say why?" she asked choking back her tears. Without missing a beat shino replied, "yes, apparently he has a family member he just found out about and he's going to track him down, he said it should take to long and he'll train you twice as hard when he returns." Hinata instantly brightened, "Oh, that's so great for Naruto!" Hinata ran off without any other questions, but kiba looked suspiciously at shino. Shino looked down to avoid eye contact, and remembered this mornings meeting with naruto.

(Flashback, outside the Aburame house)

Shino was walking outside, about to go to team eights meeting place when naruto ran up and stopped him. "Shino! Gasp... can you tell hinata I can't make it to train her today... I've got family business." He asked hopefully. "I'm not going to lie for you, especially not to her." Shino said calmly, but with a hint of anger in his voice. "It's not a lie, not exactly... listen yesterday, right after training, Hinata and I kissed." Although Naruto couldn't see it, Shino made a small smile under his coat. He knew how much and for how long Hinata has wanted to be with Naruto. He saw what Kurenai and Kiba were oblivious to. "But," Naruto continued "Late that night, Sakura came up and kissed me! I-I don't know what to do! I just need a day to sort it out, okay?" Shino was quite for a minute. "Fine, you get one day. Oh, and Naruto, I realize I can't tell you who you should be with, but if you hurt hinata in any way..." "I won't, I promise."

Shino looked up, hoping naruto would keep his promise. Although he wouldn't say it, Hinata was like a sister to Shino.

(the outskirts of Konoha)

"Yahhhh!" sasuke screamed, as he punched a mountain with the chidori. "A-and that's f-five." Sasuke panted. Ever since Orochimaru died, the curse seal had been completely absorbed by his body, resulting in a massive power raise, as the five holes in the mountain would testify. "One or two more weeks of intense training, and I will be on par with Naruto again. I don't have the right to be his or sakura's friend yet." Sasuke said sadly to himself. He looked down for a second, then, with a burning determination in his eyes, resumed training.

(Jiriaya's house)

"So that's my situation..." Naruto finished telling, "If I pick Hinata, then Sakura will hate me, and that would make for some really awkward missions. Not to mention it would be like the hundredth she'd been shot down, counting all the times Sasuke turned her down. But if I choose Sakura, then God knows how much that would hurt Hinata, she's so frail." Jiriaya sat back in his chair, still surprised Naruto would ever have girl problems like this. "That's certainly a predicament naruto. But as usual I have the answer!" Jiriaya shouted with pride. "What you need to do is," and he whispered the rest into Naruto's ear. Naruto nodded yes a few times then sat back, "Hmmm... I think I could get hinata to agree, but that doesn't sound like sakuras... AHH! What am I thinking? That's disgusting!" Naruto shouted, though still blushing at the idea Jiriaya had given him. "I don't know why I bothered to ask you, fucking pervert!" Naruto continued to shout as he stormed out. Jiriaya ran to the doorway, "Think about it, Naruto! This may be the best chance you get!"

(Kakashi's house)

"So that's my situation..." Naruto once again finished telling. Kakashi took all this in while reading his favorite book. "Well, Naruto, that is a delicate situation. But what do you know about hinata, really? If I were you, I'd go with the person you know best, your teammate." Naruto looked down still unsure. "Hey kakashi, did you ever have a relationship with a partner?" "yes, once." "so did you break up?" Kakashi looked up from his book, "No, both she and my other partner where killed on a mission." Naruto's face turned white. "But," Kakashi continued, "those were the happiest days of my life until I meet you three. And besides, you're a lot stronger now then I was at your age, you could protect your team." Naruto smiled, and ran off to his next consultant.

(Iruka's house)

"So that's my situation..." Naruto finished again, he has started to memorize this little story of his. "I can't tell you who to pick, Naruto." Naruto's head sunk. Iruka let out a small laugh. Naruto looked up, annoyed. "Sorry, it's just... I'm surprised Hinata was able to do that." "Huh?" Iruka continued, "I remember all the times, when I was teaching you two, that hinata would completely ignore the lesson and spend the whole day staring at you. And half the time you were talking to sakura. I'm just glad she finally found some confidence." Naruto looked ashamed thinking of all the times he ignored hinata. "Naruto, I have great faith in you, I know you'll make the right choice." "Thanks Iruka."

(ramen noodle bar)

Hinata sat patiently, waiting and hoping Naruto would finish his "family business" early and come here to eat. A person entered, but it was the last person hinata wanted to see. "Hey Hinata," Sakura said with a touch of contempt in her voice, "waiting for Naruto I presume?" Hinata remained calm, "Maybe..." "Well you should know there's no point anymore." "W-what?" "Oh, you haven't heard? Last night, we shared a passionate embrace..." sakura said with a sultry tone. Hinata could tell she wasn't lying, that's why naruto didn't show up to train her. She quickly got out of her seat and ran out. Sakura ordered a small bowl to go, and sat down with a satisfied smile.

(Ramen Bar, one hour later)

Naruto sat quietly by himself, as he had for awhile. He barely noticed when Kiba sat down beside him. "hey Naruto!" "Huh, oh hey kiba..." "Hey, you're not your usual moron self, what's up?" naruto looked up, "why not? I've asked anyone else...

"So that's my situation..." naruto finished explaining, "any tips?" Kiba could barely contain his excitement. For the longest time he had had a crush on hinata, but he always had the feeling she liked someone else, now it was all clear. All he had to do was give a convincing argument for sakura, and when naruto wennt for her, kiba could comfort hinata. "Well, naruto, I think..." kiba started by sounding very concerned, but suddenly stopped. He realized he had never seen hinata cry, even when her father kicked her out for being weak. But he knew this would crush her. "Shit..." "What is it?" Naruto asked. Kiba took a minute and said, "Hinata." "What? Why?" "Because, you ass, she said you were the strongest when you were a pathetic loser. Sakura didn't even like you until you beat sasuke." Naruto thought about this for a second, and then for the first time that day, made his trade mark grin. "Thanks a lot Kiba! You're not as big of a jerk as I say you are!" he yelled as he ran off. "Damn, why was I the nice guy?" kiba said to himself. He sat alnoe for a few minutes until the store manager came up to him, "So I guess, you'll be paying his bill tonight?" kiba's eyes bulged, "That BASTARD!!!"

(the training grounds, late at night)

Hinata had been hitting the same log for about two hours, and her hands were starting to bleed. She had been crying ever since she left the ramen bar about four hours ago. She was about to strike again, but instead feel to her knees. "N-n-naruto I-I t-thought you w-would... sob..." she managed to say as she curled her legs into her chest. "I would what?" naruto asked as he wrapped his arms around hinata. For once naruto appearing didn't automatically brighten hinata's mood. "Hey hinata, sorry I wasn't here to train you, I was..." naruto said, trying to remember the excuse he gave to Shino, "busy." "M-making out with sakura?" hinata said angrily (angry for hinata anyways). "HAH! More like avoiding sakura..." naruto laughed, not realizing what hinata knew. "S-she t-told about last night..." hinata said, still crying. "Oh," Narutos face fell, "Hinata, I... that was a mistake..." Hinata looked up, with a little hope in her eyes. "She came up to me, I didn't even know what was happening... And besides, she doesn't mean anything to me anymore, you do." "B-b-but you a-always h-had a a a c-crush-" "Now I don't." Hinata couldn't believe what was happening. "B-but she's braver, a-and s-smarter, and prettier, and.." "Even If she was those things, which she's not, I don't care," Naruto remembered what kiba told him, "you thought I was strong when I couldn't do anything. You're the one girl who stared at me instead of sasuke. I-I love you." Hinata had stopped crying, as naruto slowly brought his lips to hers as they kissed under the moonlight. It seemed to last forever and when naruto parted from her, her face couldn't get any redder. "T-thank y-y-you N-naruto..." was all she managed to say. They sat together silently until naruto said, "Oh, and about you not being as pretty as sakura, you know she's as flat as a board, right?" Hinata's face turned redder.

Naruto walked back to his house after walk hinata to kurenai's house where she stayed. "I'm on top of the world, although sakura will probably knock me down a few pegs when I tell her tomorrow... Oh well." He stopped when he saw the shadowy figure in front of his door. It was Gaara. "Yo man, don't you sleep?" "Rarely." Gaara said with pride, as he had been able to partially control Shuku in his sleep. "O...kay... well, what do you want?" "Tomorrow we're fighting, no exceptions." And with that gaara turned around and walked off to his home. Naruto stayed silent for a minute until he said, "Finally, a break!" and went to sleep.

Thanks to everyone who read this far, and even more thanks to everyone who reviewed. My apologies to all you sakura/naruto fans out there. I promise I'll put sakura with... someone.


	14. Round One!

I don't own Naruto

Kurenai walked into a small breakfast bar, where the other high class ninjas often ate. Kakashi looked up and waved, surprised to see her.

"Hey Kurenai," he said in his usual laid back tone, "It's been awhile since you've eaten here..."

Kurenai sighed, "Ever since Hinata started living with me she's made breakfast, but she ran out early this morning." Her voice ringed with embarrassment, which derived from her being used to one of her subordinates doing her house work.

"I guess there's someone else she'd rather make breakfast for..." Iruka who was sitting at the same table as Kakashi said, "You owe me ten bucks Kakashi."

Kakashi groaned as he fished the money out of his pocket, "I should have known he'd pick Hinata."

Kurenai's eyes bulged with rage, "You two bet on this?!?" she screamed.

Kakashi completely ignored her, "Still, I had hoped he'd pick Sakura, this is going to make the team relations even worse." Kakashi thought back over the last few weeks' events. The fact that the best relation on the team was between Gaara and Naruto was troubling to say the least. All the lower class ninjas were buzzing about the fight those two had today. "Maybe I should tag along so it doesn't get out of hand." He thought to himself.

(Naruto's house)

Naruto was awaked by an intoxicating smell of bacon and eggs that made his mouth salivate. He sat up in his bed while stretching wondering about the source. "Maybe that lazy ass brother of mine couldn't find an apartment..." he murmured to himself. He slowly walked into his kitchen and was pleasantly surprised to see Hyuga Hinata, his new girlfriend, instead of brother. "Hey Hinata!" he shouted.

Hinata jumped up, she had hoped to leave before naruto woke up so she wouldn't have to explain her uninvited presence. "H-hello n-n-n" was all she could get out before naruto walked over and hugged her.

"Thanks for breakfast Hinata!" he exclaimed, while thinking there was no way sakura would ever have done anything like this.

They had been eating breakfast together for about five minutes, which was all naruto needed to suck down the entire meal. Hinata finally asked a question which had been plaguing her all night and day, "N-naruto, h-have you t-told Sakura about... us?" she asked shyly. She was still nervous about Sakura, thinking about how long naruto carried a crush on her.

Naruto gave her his trademark grin, "Hinata, you'll know when I tell sakura, because when I do... she will kill me."

Hinata smiled at Naruto's half joke. "Y-you are planning to t-tell her... right?"

Naruto smiled, finaaly realizing how insecure Hinata was about Sakura. "Yeah... I just got to think of a nice way to say it."

Hinata didn't think Sakura deserved any to be told nicely, not after the other day. But she knew naruto wouldn't be cold, especially not to one of his teammates. Another thought came to mind. "N-naruto... is it true y-you're fighting that Gaara t-today?"

Naruto remembered that he was indeed supposed to fight the sand ninja, "Yeah, how did you hear about it?"

"Everyone's talking about it... N-naruto be careful, okay? I-I know he's your teammate but he is pretty violent." She said, remembering the incident in the death forest.

"You don't have to tell me... but don't worry! I've fought Gaara before, and came out alright." Naruto exclaimed in a manner which instantly put hinata at rest. Then Naruto remembered he had promised to train her everyday before the upcoming tournament. "Hey, we better get to training now! I want to have an hours rest before the fight!"

"O-oh naruto you don't have to... I understand..." Hinata said, blushing.

"Sure I do, I promised, and I already missed one day." Naruto said. In his mind, however, he was also thinking this would be the best way to avoid sakura for the whole day.

(Noodle Bar)

Tenten sat at the counter letting her noodles grow cold while she was staring at her teammate, neji, who was staring down at his noodles. Everyday she dreamed of telling neji how she felt for him. She always said she wanted to be the strongest female ninja, but she never told a soul it was so the strongest male ninja would notice her. Even though neji had lost to naruto, she still considered him the strongest. Neji looked over at her,

"Hey tenten, are you not feeling well?"

Tenten blushed lightly at his concern. "I'm fine, why?"

"You don't seem very hungry... I thought maybe you had a cold."

Tenten looked down and quickly took several bites of her noodles, just to satisfy neji.

All of a sudden Rock Lee ran into the noodle bar, "Hey, hey did you both hear? Naruto and Gaara are fighting today! It's happening in a few hours!"

Tenten looked at Lee, acting childish as usual. "Lee, it's just a fight... we have serious training to do today. The examination tournament is twenty days away."

"We're going." Neji said. Both looked at him, since he rarely agreed with Lee over Tenten.

"B-but neji..." tenten stammered, trying to understand her usual no nonsense teammates change in demeanor.

"Naruto and Gaara are going to be the two to beat. Only a fool would miss this opportunity to see them in action." Neji explained. "And besides, if more people come, they might try harder and really mess each other up." He added with a small laugh.

"Did Neji just laugh?" Tenten thought to herself.

Lee however understood, "Neji's trying to rationalize his decision, he can't just admit he wants to see a fight where the winner isn't clear."

(right outside the noodle bar)

Sasuke grinned as he listened to the conversation inside. "Neji is completely correct. This will be a crucial match". He thought to himself, "When naruto beat Gaara the first time, Gaara was bleeding from my chidori attack, though it didn't seem to affect him much. So the real question is can Naruto fight that hard when he's not protecting someone?" Sasuke smirked. This would indeed be an interesting match.

(the sand triplets home)

Gaara stood at the balcony telling the time from the direction of the sun, "Just three more hours," he said to no one in particular, "then will see how well I can control you." He said, clutching his stomach, his way of addressing the demon inside of him.

Temari stared at her little brother, noticing how different he had become. Less than two months ago, if he were about to enter an important battle, his other side would have started leaking out by now. "I'm happy for you little brother," she thought to herself while smiling, "I only hope you find what you're looking for on the battlefield today..."

(team ten's meeting place)

Asuma grinned at his team approvingly, "you three did great today! You're already done with today's missions! Even you seemed extra motivated shikamaru..."

"We had to finish early today," Ino replied, speaking for the entire team, "If we didn't, we'd be the only ones from our whole class who didn't see the Gaara/Naruto fight!"

"Yeah," Choji chimed in, "Even the kids who had to go back to the academy for more training are coming out for this." Choji then looked down at his shoes as he shoved some potato chips into his mouth. "Damn," he thought, "If naruto wins, then he'll become a real ladies man. Am I going to be the only one without a girlfriend?" he then looked over at shikamaru. "Oh, never mind..."

Then, uncharacteristically, Shikamaru spoke, "It should be quite a fight. Y'know, fighting isn't so bad if you're just watching..."

(team eight's meeting place)

Kiba and Shino sat silently, awaiting the fight like everyone else.

Shino looked over to his teammate, "so where do you think Hinata was this morning?"

Kiba's eyes bulged, "you know damn well where she is, bug boy!" Kiba had been mentally kicking himself since last night for giving Naruto advice on hinata. "Damn," he thought, "The one minute a day I'm a nice guy is when he decides to ask for help."

Shino knew kiba had a crush on hinata, he also knew that Hinata's feelings for naruto were more meaningful. "Hey, Kiba, you're not going to make a scene are you?"

Kiba looked over and sighed, "Not as long as Hinata's happy..."

Underneath his jacket Shino made a small smile, "maybe you aren't such a jerk after all."

(The fight grounds)

Naruto and Hinata walked together to the scheduled meeting place. "N-naruto, promise me you'll be careful..."

Naruto smiled at her, "I will, and don't worry," he replied as he looked over at the huge crowd gathered, "with this many ninjas here, not even Gaara would dare to do something." Hinata seemed much more relaxed after hearing this, so relaxed she didn't notice naruto's excitement building. "This will be my first great test since sasuke... hope I'm up for it."

"Get down here." A monotone voice called over the crowd. Naruto looked over to confirm it was gaara, who had arrived an hour early, just to stave off his anxiousness.

"Alright, alright..." naruto replied calmly, quickly moving towards his opponent until they were on level ground and about ten meters away from each other. It was a small grassy clearing surrounded by towering trees. The two just stared at each other for a few moments which seemed to stretch out ages.

While nothing was happening, hinata felt a hand come down hard on her shoulder. She turned her head to see it was Sakuras. "H-hey hinata... d-did I just see you arrive with naruto?" she said through clenched teeth.

Hinata gave her sweetest, most innocent smile as she looked at the pink haired girl and said in her usual quite tone, "Yes, we spent all morning together..."

Sakura gritted her teeth even more, "D-doing w-what?"

Hinata kept her innocent smile while secretly enjoying her moment of victory. "Oh you know, training and... other things."

Sakura was about to scream, but just at that moment, Naruto threw three shirukens at gaara's face, which were immediately blocked by a wall of sand. Naruto used gaara's moment of blindness to make ten shadow duplicates which all charged the red headed ninja. Gaara grabbed the first one and threw him into another, taking an extra second to make sure both exploded into smoke. He then launched multiple sand daggers, an attack which left only four narutos, one which was inconveniently behind him. That naruto kicked the sand ninja in the back of the head, only to have 'gaara' crumble to nothing, as the real gaara emerged behind the clones, tearing all four of them to shreds, not even blinking as they all turned to smoke.

Gaara looked up at the surrounding trees and in his normal voice uttered, "Get. Serious."

Naruto appeared on one of the higher tree branches and cheerfully replied, "Okay!" he then closed his eyes for a few moments as a reddish orange chakra surrounded his body. Gaara quickly ordered a large wave of sand to crush naruto, but found the sand couldn't get pass the 'chakra shield'. "I think I have you at a disadvantage!" naruto called from the tree tops.

Gaara closed his eyes and had a large amount of sand surrounded his right arm, forming his infamous claw. "Think again."

Thanks to everyone whose read and reviewed! How do you like my new style? I think this is my best action scene yet!


	15. clash of konoha's strongest

As you may have guessed, I don't own naruto.

God Damn, sorry for the long wait, but school held me back for a little bit. I'll get back to normal updates soon.

(the battle ground)

Most gennins stared with interest at Gaara's new arm, because few knew what horrors it had been used for. But temari had witnessed almost every one of them. "Gaara, I hope you know what you're doingâ we're just starting to get on this villages good side, we can't afford a death on our hands."

Sakura also remembered being easily beaten by this arm, or something like it. Remembering the pain allowed her to briefly forget how angry she was with Naruto, and what she planned on doing to him if half of the things hinata had told her were true. "be careful naruto"

Sasuke, who was watching from the shadows, saw much more then the two girls. "Hmmâ the power is the same, but Gaara doesn't have the same killing intent he had last time."

Naruto had the highest vantage point, being in the tree tops looking down on Gaara. His face showed no worry, but in his mind; "OH CRAP!!! I thought this was a sparring match, not a spaz out and kill me match! I'm not sure I can beat him and protect everybodyâ then again, he does seem calmer. And his eyes haven't changed"

Naruto had no more time to think over his situation, as Gaara suddenly moved to the base of the tree, cutting through it with one blow. Naruto propelled himself up off the tree, only to find it didn't fall. Instead Gaara caught it with his right monster hand, and sent it flying upwards at Naruto.

"Shit!" Naruto cursed himself for miss-guessing Gaara's attack plan, as he quickly attached himself to the flying tree and ran down it. Upon reaching the base, he used another burst of chakra to send him toward Gaara, punching him square in the nose. Gaara fell back a step while swinging his powerful arm knocking naruto twenty feet away. The two combatants quickly rose to their feet and charged each other head on while the crowd looked on with amazement.

"What the hell is naruto doing?" Ino screamed, "If Lee couldn't beat Gaara with just physical skills, what chance does he have?"

Shikamaru answered Ino's question without straying from the battle, something he was finally interested in, "actually, since Gaara has also changed his fighting style, the best thing to do might be to charge him head on. Especially if you're a stamina freak like Naruto" he trailed of as naruto and gaara flashed in and out of visibility. As if on cue, hinata, neji and sasuke all activated their respective enhanced eyes.

Tenten looked over at the object of her desire, and saw his hands were shaking. "Neji isâ scared?" She thought to herself, "No that's impossibleâ but what? Hmph, if I was Neji, I'd be able to tell what was wrong with him."

At that second, Naruto fell back against a tree and gaara took the opportunity to try and smash him into it. But instead he simply smashed the tree to pieces, as naruto had jumped up and landed on gaara's large arm, kicking him in the face.

Tenten's attention drifted from neji to the battle, after watching the two fighters dart around a few more times, she turned to her other partner. "Lee, are they really using Taijustsu?"

"Well, Gaara is using advanced Taijutsu. That is to say, one that incorporates a force besides the body or weapons. It's surprising that he knows one, when we fought, his physical skills were fairly weak since he usually doesn't have to move in battle." Lee explained, happy to be asked a question on his area of expertise. "What naruto is doing is something like my Lotus, pushing large amounts of chakra out of his body, and raising the strength of his muscles. But he heals so fast he can use it much longer. I must say I am jealousâ But INSPIRED! I WILL NOW TRAIN FIVE TIMES AS HARD EACH DAY!" he yelled to no one in particular.

Tenten smiled warmly at his outburst. Not long ago, she would have stepped back embarrassed, and pretend not to know him. But ever since he was healed of his wounds, she treasured each moment with both her teammates. She snapped out of her day dream when naruto was knocked through three trees, she stared as all the splinters popped out of his body without him even noticing as he charged gaara yet again.

"It's entertaining as hell, but I don't think I'm learning anything!" kiba said smiling. This was an ideal afternoon for kiba, as this was his kind of fight, long and brutal.

"I have to agree," said Shino, "I came here to see what kind of techniques they knew, instead I'm barely able to keep up. It's really bothering all the bugs in the forest"

Temari looked over at shikamaru, "You're right, naruto is using the best possible fighting style for this situation, since Gaara can block almost anything with his arm." She leaned on him as she said this, wrapping her arms around his neck.

Ino, being Konoha's prime gossip, had to take notice of this. "A woman is attractive to shikamaru?" she laughed inwardly.

Shikamaru also noticed Temari's affection. "A woman finds me attractive? Nahâ:"

Suddenly, Gaara and Naruto appeared again. Naruto was caught in the grip of gaara's sand, and gaara was trying desperately to try and squeeze the life out of him. "YAHHHH!" naruto screamed as he summoned more chakra from the kyuubi, allowing him to explode out of the sand and push gaara into a large tree.

Hinata was pushing her thumbs against each other in her trademark style. She had seen naruto fight before but it was never so evenly matched. "Please don't leave me Naruto" she thought to herself.

At that moment naruto and gaara collided into each othe, both falling back a few feet. Naruto had stopped healing awhile ago, and gaara's arm was falling apart.

"This is all the control I have over my demon." Gaara thought to himself as both he and naruto collapsed to the ground.

"N-naruto!" Hinata exclaimed as she rushed over to her boyfriend, propping his head on her lap.

"T-thanks hinata" Naruto groaned out, thoroughly enjoying resting on hinata as she timidly ran her hand through his hair. "D-did I win?"

"I-I think this is a tie" she said with a warm smile. Both were oblivious to all the people who surrounded them asking questions and giving compliments to the fighters.

Gaara managed to turn his head to look at his opponent's state, and seeing enough to be jealous that naruto had found a companion so easily. He wasn't jealous for too long though, as ino followed hinata and lent gaara her lap. "Wow, gaara, you were great out there! I coundn't even keep up!"

Gaara considered himself fortunate that his face had so much blood and dirt ino couldn't see him blush. He relaxed his head and took in her warmth and smell. He closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep, something that usually required him to make spwcial mental blocks. But with Shukaku completely drained, and his own body broken, he had nothing to worry about.

(an hour later)

Most of the crowd had dissipated. Gaara had been taken home by Ino and Kankuro, with Shikamaru and Temari following behind. Lee had left for the training field and tenten was searching for Neji.

"Where could he haveâ ah! There!" she said triumphantly outloud. She saw neji standing in front of a tree. When she looked closer, she saw his hands were bleeding. "Neji! What happened?"

Neji stared at the tree, which he had been striking for the last thirty minutes. "Those to did it without an effort. One swing and the forest fell. I-I can barely make a dent!"

"B-but Neji, you use a gentle fist style, you aren't expected to-"

"My chakra should still be close!" neji screamed, causing tenten to take a step back. "I used to be the strongest"

"I still think you're the strongest." Tenten said in a warm voice. "Naruto and Gaara haven't been through half the things you have"

(HAH. That's wrong.)

Neji straightened up. "You always stand by me, why?" he asked the brown haired girl.

"Be-causeâ I always thought" tenten looked at neji, moved in, and pressed her lips against his, giving him all the answers he needed.

(back on the fighting ground)

Naruto was still resting on hinata's lap, feeling no motivation to leave the heaven he was currently in, until a certain pink haired girl slowly walked up to the two. As soon as Naruto saw Sakura, he started begging his legs to move, but they wouldn't.

"Hinata, I just want to tell you this isn't over. I care deeply about Naruto, and I'm not going to let him settle for second best."

Naruto couldn't focus on sakura's words but he was able to feel hinata's legs tense up, and her thumbs involuntarily flicked his head. "She deserves someone who's proud of her." He thought to himself as he used his remaining strength to sit up.

"You're wrong sakura." He said in a hoarse whisper for him, which was still pretty loud. "Hinata's the best thing that ever happened to me, and I wouldn't trade her for anyone."

Hinata smiled, finally knowing naruto was happy with her. At the same time, sakura's eyes welled up with tears as she ran away. Naruto then fell back onto hinata, knowing he did the right thing, and that he would pay for it tomorrow.

Another chapter down! Thanks to everyone who waited, read, and reviewed! The next big conflict in the story will involve four aktsuki members storming the village, but that's about three chapters away.


	16. Rest

My internet is back up and running BITCH! And it feels great! That being said, I don't own Naruto.

(Konoha)

The young ninja's had settled after yesterdays events, and were getting back to the training and missions of their everyday lives. For instance team seven, composed of Naruto, Sakura, and Gaara, were awaiting their new mission, and as usual, waiting for their teacher to arrive.

Not as usual, however, was the coldest of emotions coming not from Gaara, but from the recently and officially dumped sakura. Her back was turned to the two boys, her fists trembling with silent rage. Gaara moved over to Naruto.

"You aren't very good at handling these situations. Didn't you realize how bad this would be for our team dynamics?" the redheaded child asked.

"Gaara, I do not need to hear this from you, okay?" Naruto said strongly but quietly, as not to disturb their brooding teammate. "Besides, what do you care? It's me she wants to kill!"

"I don't want to be the only strong one on this team." Gaara whispered back, making damn sure sakura didn't hear that.

"Listen, our best chance right now is that she'll blow up at kakashi for being late, and that'll take the heat off us!" naruto said with a smile, for once thankful of his eachers tardiness.

(kuenai's team)

Since kurenai made a point of always being on time, the team always finished their missions on time or early. "You three were exceptional today," kurenai remarked, "Hinata, you are especially showing signs of improvement."

"T-thank you..." Hinata said shyly, as she turned and headed into town.

"Hey hinata! Aren't you going to train now?" Kiba asked, since he was used to hinata staying hours later then the rest.

"L-later... now I have to... do something for... someone." Hinata replied hiding that she was going to make lunch for naruto. She tried to keep her and naruto's relationship a secret. She didn't know her entire team already knew. She also had know way of knowing that naruto had directly told her two teammates when asking for advice. Lucky for her, they decided to play along.

"Oh! Okay then." Kiba shouted, waiting for hinata to walk away, then turning to the team and laughing.

"Hmm. Team sevens only mission is to find a stray dog..." shino said. "But it was last seen deep in the forest... she might be waiting for a while."

"To bad there isn't a specialist who could help naruto find it, so he could get to what's important." Kurenai added staring at kiba.

"YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS! I'm the one who got them together! I done helping this fucking relationship!" Kiba shouted, still bitter hinata wasn't with him.

"Kiba! I'm giving you this as an A ranked mission!" Kurenai shouted back, as shino silently laughed under his jacket.

(An Hour Later)

As her teammates guessed, hinata sat waiting patiently and happily for Naruto. She was sitting on a soft blanket, her legs shoved into her chest, with a large bowl of ramen, that she made herself, by her side.

"Heyyyy, HINATA!"

She jumped up, surprised to see naruto had arrived early back from his mission, blushing as he sat down next to her. "N-naruto! I'm glad t-to see you! Was your mission canceled?" she asked, wondering how any team with kakashi as a leader could finish early.

"No, even better! Kiba came by and leant us a hand!" he paused, "Not that a great ninja like myself needed any help!" he said proudly.

"O-of course not!" hinata said cheerfully, while silently thanking kiba.

"To bad that guy can't seem to catch a break..." naruto said.

Hinata looked up. "W-what happened?"

"wellll..." naruto said trying to put it as softly as possible for his girlfriend, "Sakura stabbed him..."

Hinata's face fell, now showing a mixture of concern and confusion. Naruto was not good at speaking subtly.

(The streets of Konoha)

"That fucking bitch! I'm gonna kill her!" Kiba screamed, attracting the stares of many villagers. Gaara walked behind him, the only one on the street who knew what happened. They had been joined by shikamaru, who was able to bandage the wound in kiba's arm.

Shikamaru knew better then to try and get an answer out of kiba while he was raging, so he turned to gaara. "So what exactly happened."

Gaara sighed, "It started out fine... he helped us track down a stray, which is a mission far beneath me, and was walking away. Naruto was thanking him, but as soon as he spoke, Sakura started shouting at him, like she has been all day. When she was done yelling, kiba told naruto that... that 'she needed to get laid, big time' and so she stabbed him in the right arm."

Shikamaru blinked, not being entirely surprised. But as he was about to say something, kiba's voice boomed over the crowd.

"Oh wait... I know! We'll do better than kill her, Akamaru, we'll enact our revenge with... THE DYNAMIC AIR MARKING!"

Shikamaru groaned inwardly, "his brilliant is to piss on her?"

Gaara turned to shikamaru, "what is... dynamic air marking?" he listened closely as shikamaru whispered into his ear. Gaara's eyes bulged, as he turned to address kiba, "I don't think that's wise!" he said, but kiba was already halfway there. Gaara sighed "this is very... troublesome."

"hahahahaha..." shikamaru doubled over laughing, not believing he had something in common with gaara.

Gaara was puzzeled by shikamaru's reaction, but decided not to comment. Instead, he asked, "should we go after him?"

Shikamaru stood up, still smiling. "No, that'd be to hard," he said, "we watch!"

(Back to Naruto...)

Naruto had managed to convince hinata to stay with him. Considering it was him who was asking, it wasn't to hard. But as he held her tightly in his arms, he noticed she was still tense. "Hinata, you don't have to worry about kiba... he's given himself worse wounds." Immediately after he finished speaking, he placed a light kiss on hinata's neck making her blush furiously.

"I-I-I'm not worried about the wound, N-naruto, i-it's just... I-I don't think Kiba is going to let this go..." she trailed off, thinking of likely ways her teammate would retaliate.

Naruto smiled his trademark grin, "Oh, there's no question, those two will be at this until nightfall..."

Hinata looked up and let out a small laugh. "T-then why don't we..."

"First thing, I don't think Sakura's willing to take advice from either of us," Hinata couldn't argue with that. "And two, we haven't been able to spend a whole day together yet!" naruto finished.

Hinata smiled brightly as she eased into naruto's body, as she let out a small whisper, "Thank you..."

(Much later, the ramen bar)

Temari, Shikamaru, and Gaara sat at the right edge of the table, seeing as kiba and sakura were sitting at the left end of the bar. Sakura's was face down exhausted, her body covered with scratches and bruises inflicted by Akamaru, along with some thing else. "This gasp was my gasp favorite dress..." she managed to say.

Kiba was also face down on the counter but he turned his head toward her, revealing his black and blue face with the bloody nose. "Oh pant that's your favorite dress? I pant wouldn't have guessed, since you wear it every fucking day!" he screamed with a hoarse voice.

At this moment, Lee and Ino walked in and gasped at the sight. Ino ran up to sakura, "S-sakura what happened to you? Where'd you get these wounds? Wh-what the hell is that smell?"

Gaara answered, as his two companions were rolling on the floor. "Sakura and Kiba have been fighting all day over some event I don't even remember. I believe all Sakura's wounds were given by kiba's mutt. And the smell is... dynamic air markings." After hearing this, Ino took her arm off Sakura's back"

Lee's eyes burned with anger, "How dare you inflict such wounds on my beautiful Sakura? Stand, and meet your utter defeat." As soon as he said this, kiba spit out a tooth, and lee lost a little determination.

"Haha, I think someone beat you to the punch, Lee." Shikamaru said, getting off the floor for the umpteenth time that day.

"HA... punch!" temari laughed as she was getting off the floor.

At this moment, Naruto and Hinata walked into the bar. "Wow, you two really went all out on each other, didn't you?" Naruto said laughing.

While naruto took shikamaru and temari's place on the floor, hinata frantically searched through her bag for medicines to give. As she handed them off to kiba, she noticed Sakura's scratches, and gave half to her.

Sakura blushed lightly as she thought to herself, "I wouldn't have done that..."

"Hinata... thank you."

"Y-your welcome, sakura."

Naruto got up and walked over to sakura. Before he could speak, she did, "Naruto, I want to be friends again..."

"No problem sakura!" He shouted, smiling. "hey, what's that smell?"

(Atksuki grounds)

A medium sized man addressed nine others, all dressed in black cloaks. "We have an unprecedented opportunity. Two of the legendary demons are now occupying a single, still war torn village. The Konoha. However, despite its lack of ninjas... it still contains some of the most powerful humans to ever walk the earth. So we will be sending two teams." A few eyes were raised at this.

The man continued, "The four going will be; Itachi, Kisami, Gotuburo, and Suro."

When this was said, the four stepped forward. Gotuburo was seven foot five with huge muscles, muscles which he had plated with the strongest steel for protection. He was the physical expert among the group

Suro was six foot one. He was rather skinny, but aside from the man giving the orders, he was the most feared man of the Atksuki.

The man spoke one final time, "you leave tomorrow. Kill as many as you like."

That's all for this chapter! Thanks to all who read and reviewed. Especially: Sirus183, Gopu, Dargon Sheinto, and Cookie6, who have been reading for awhile.

And if you're one of those people who stopped reading because I made it Naruto/Hinata, then I've got something to say to you! But you already stopped reading so I have no way to say it.

Til next time!


	17. Rage

I don't own Naruto, but I did think up a bunch of characters in this chapter.

(the streets of the Konoha)

"Now I'm really pissed!" Naruto shouted at the top of his lungs. It's one thing to make us wait an hour, but to not show up? What a bastard!" Naruto was referring to kakashi., who had not shown up, leaving team seven to wait for three hours.

"The next time I see him..." sakura said through gritted teeth, her hands clenched so tightly her knuckles turned white.

"Something's wrong." Gaara said, interrupting sakura.

"No shit something's wrong, we just got stood up! What kind of loser allows himself to be stood up?" Naruto shouted, oblivious to the death stares given by sakura, who he had recently stood up and dumped.

"No, I mean something's wrong with Kakashi. Normally when he is late I can sense him about fifteen minutes before he shows up. But he wasn't even close today."

Gaara was correct, and would've known it if he had talked to the other lower ninjas. None of the senseis had bothered to show up (though no other team waited more than thirty minutes). But he his fears were realized and multiplied as a man in a black robe stepped into the middle of the street.

Gaara and Naruto came to a dead stop, causing sakura to bump into both of them. "hey why'd you stop? I-" she fell silent. "Hey that looks like..."

"Itachi." Naruto said, a small quiver in his voice.

"You're a fool if you think you can defeat both of us, especially without the fish." Gaara said, stepping forward.

Itachi smirked, "Heh. The 'fish' is here, as are two others." Gaara was no longer as confident, but his body didn't show it. "In fact Kisami should be wandering around the south east side."

Gaara froze, "the flower shop. Shit, Ino!" was all that occupied his mind. "You bastard, how did you know?"

"Good eyes." Itachi replied.

"Naruto... I'm"

"Just go. I'll take care of this asshole." Naruto said giving the thimbs up, as gaara dissipated into the sand.

(Konoha, south east)

Ino was horrified as she saw one of her best friends bleeding from the gut. "W-who the hell is this guy? How could he do that to choji so easily?"

Kisame laughed, "Don't worry, I could take a year and not cut through all that fat!"

Ino knew she wouldn't stand a chance, not without shikamaru present. Kisame took a step toward her, then jumped back, dodging several shiruken. "who are you?"

"Hey, Ino. You're lucky kurenai didn't show up!" kiba shouted from the top of a nearby building, with shino and hinata standing behind him.

Kisame laughed again. "Luck had nothing to do with it. I beat that bitch within an inch of her life."

Kiba let out a low growl, accompanied by akamaru's barking. Shino eyes filled with hate under his sunglasses. Hinata, though enraged, kept a straight mind.

"B-becareful, he's wearing the same clothes as sasukes brother..."

"I don't care what the fuck he's wearing, he's about to be buried in it!" Kiba screamed, as he and his dog charged down to kisami.

"Fool." Kisame said under his breath as he easily dodged them both. "You could never touch m- AGH!" he shouted as he grabbed his right arm in pain. Looking down he saw red bugs crawling all over his arm.

Shino spoke from the top of the building. "Looks like devil-fleas. Were you near a dog recently?"

"Clever little brats..." kisame said, as he brushed the insects off. He was quickly interrupted by a volley of swipes from hinata. He was caught of guard, which let kiba tackle him from behind. Kisame faltered, then jumped several feet away. "Fine, I'll just kill them all." He muttered, removing his sword from his back.

"Careful!" Ino shouted to her rescuers, "It's not a normal sword! It's used for peeling, but there's something else! It took choji down with one hit!"

Kiba's eyes bulged, "One hit? And choji's a heavy hitter. This won't be easy..."

(The rooftops of Konoha)

Suro stood alone, surveying all that happened. "Hmmm... things are going well. Gaara and Naruto have been separated. And Gotuburo is in place as well. Kisame should be able to handle Gaara and those brats. Maybe I'll even get lucky and Itachi will die."

Suro took a moment to laugh at his half joke. He openly despised Itachi, or the Sharingan anyways. He hated the idea that someone could copy any technique just by glancing at it. He shook these thoughts away and returned to his observations. "Still have four kids unaccounted for. The genius I've heard so much about, and the three under Gai... and the sand siblings, but I doubt they give a damn."

His arm swung up on instinct, catching a kunai. "well, there's the missing three..." he thought to himself as he turned, looking over Neji, Rock Lee, and Tenten. "Hey girl, nice throw, cut through 92 percent of the air resistance."

"94." Tenten stated flatly as Neji stepped up.

"I'm assuming you are the reason for our teachers' disappearance."

"You assume correctly." Suro said in a mocking tone, as he took notice Lee clenching his fist. He silently assessed his opponents, "Iron fist, gentle fist, and long distance. A good combination. Should be fun." As he took a kunai in each hand.

(South East)

Kisame laughed in delight, he had not expected a challenge from anyone from the gennin level. But here were four runts doing well. Somewhat well. But he could see they were already faltering. The soldier pills the dog boy had all but worn out. The bug kid was no longer keeping his cool, as he had witnessed one attack after another fail. The small dark haired girl had lost what little confidence she had. And the skinny blonde chick hadn't moved from her fat friend the whole battle.

"You're to weak to be a ninja. In fact, you're to weak to be left alive!" He screamed as he charged ino, swinging down his blade with every intent to kill. Only to find his blade caught in a wall of sand. "So you're finally here..."

Gaara didn't bother to look at Kisame as he tended to ino. "Are you bleeding?" he asked, still nsure of how to talk to, much less rescue, a girl.

"Y-yes, I'm fine. Thank you." She said as a blush grew on here face.

"Good." Gaara said as he stood up and faced Kisame. "You. Are. Dead."

(Rooftops)

Suro easily dodged a flurry of strikes from Neji, whle ducking under a spinning kick from Lee, only to see a kunai flying toward his face. He did a back flip in the air to avoid it, kicking Lee in the back of his head while coming down. "You three are very well coordinated. Obviously very close. I wonder how you'll react when the first one of you dies."

Tenten stepped back slightly, having never considered that one of her cherished friends might die.

"No one's dying today, save for you." Neji said for Tentens sake.

Suro looked up, having completely missed Neji's remark. "Four new people have just entered the town. Don't recognize any of their chakras. And someone's about to engage Itachi..."

(the streets of Konoha)

Itachi had been staring at Naruto for what felt like forever. He turned his head slightly making eye contact with Sakura. She immediately collapsed. Naruto growled, "Batard..."

"I could do that to you as well. Her mental guards are superior to yours. But I prefer to take you by force!" in a blink of an eye he was upon naruto, ready to strike.

Naruto was frozen, "That speed..."

But Itachi veered off from naruto, almost losing his footing. When he skidded to a stop, he felt his cheek where there was a small cut. "Who is this?"

Naruto looked at his savior, and smiled brightly. His savior looked down with a confused look. "Hey bro, do you owe this guy money or something?"

Next chapter: The rivalry between the remains of the Uzamaki and Uchiha families goes to a new level as the older brothers square off. The battles rage all around, as well as the appearance of some newcomers.

That's it for this chapter, I'll try to put the next one out a little quicker. Thanks for reading and please review!


	18. Allies: New and Old

I don't own Naruto, but some of these characters are mine.

(Streets of Konoha)

Hisindo stared at Itachi, "Listen I don't know who you are, but I have a good idea what you want from my little brother, and you can go fuck yourself, cause it ain't happening."

Naruto tugged at his robe, "H-is name is Uchiha Itachi... he-he,"

Hisindo's eyes lit up as he returned his gaze to Itachi, "Hahahaha! THE Itachi? You killed your entire family, right?"

Itachi made a small grimace, "Correct."

Hisindo's entire expression changed, leaving him absolutely humorless. "Hmph, if one family was weak enough to be killed by one pimple faced teenage shit, then they deserved to die."

Itachi's eyes bluged with hate and Sharingan, as he charged Hisindo directly with a kunai. Hisindo ducked and rose his sword, slightly cutting Itachi's right arm.

Itachi jumped back and stared, thoughts rushing in his mind, "why can't I read his movements?"

"You can't read me," Hisindo said, guessing what Itachi was thinking, "because I'm not a ninja. I've seen techniques like yours before, they show the next move due to muscle patterns. But a samurai's stance is neutral, so you can't tell where I'm going."

"I see," Itachi said as he disabled the sharingan. "This will indeed be interesting."

(Other side of Konoha)

Gaara was gasping for air, the mist ninja before had been assigned just for him. "damn his sword, without it he'd be dead..." Gaara looked around, team eight was scattered around him, cut, bruised, and collapsed.

"heh, not to helpful are they?" Kisame laughed.

Gaara looked at Ino lying on the floor, and stood up with renewed determination and hate, "their presence is unnecessary." He stated as he lunged sand daggers at the cloaked man before him.

Kisame escaped with a few cuts, "Damn, he just won't fall..."

(forest surrounding Konoha)

Four figures stood in the shadows, observing all that happened. They were a traditional group of three gennins and one master. That's all that's traditional about them.

"You two head into town and aid the sand boy." The master commanded the two boys.

"Aren't you coming teacher?" the younger boy asked. He wore a blue jacket with no sleves, and collar that reached just above his chin. He was about naruto's height, though he was only eleven.

"No, I want our appearance to be without incident, so I'm sending you two as an olive branch of sorts." The teacher explained.

"So, you ain't comin' cause you're scared? That's fine... but why ain't she comin'?"

The older boy asked pointing his finger at the girl. He was only fourteen, but stood at five foot eleven inches. He didn't wear normal ninja attire, but instead wore a black coat that went down to his legs, and steel tipped boots instead of sandals. And where any skin might have been visible, he was covered with white bandages, including the face.

"This is also a test of trust, which she has already proven." The elder man said, getting annoyed.

The younger boy spoke in a somewhat hurt, some what playful voice, "Come on, teacher, you know I'm trustworthy!"

"Yeah, an' you know I'm not..." the elder boy added.

"Just... GO!" the teacher screamed. The two boys stopped pressing their luck and left.

(streets)

Hisindo and Itachi had matched each other blow for blow, for the last fifteen minutes.

"Shit!" Hisindo shouted in his mind, "How is this guy not tired? Ninja's aren't supposed to have stamina! I thought I'd have the advantage in a long fight..."

"Something the matter?" Itachi asked, hate seeping from his voice.

Hisindo put on a pleasant smile, "Just thinking what a great samurai you would've been."

Itachi had had enough. At lightning speed he used the necessary signs, and his left hand started flashing a sinister dark blue, and the air filled with the sound of a thousand birds chirping.

Naruto's face fell, "how could he know... chidori?"

Itachi narrowed his eyes, "I've seen it been done."

Hisindo grimaced. "So this is the final clash, huh?" He bit his thumb to draw blood, then quickly spread the blood to his thumbnail. After a few hand gestures, he swiped his nail against the blade of his sword, creating sparks, then a huge flame. "Samurai Fire Technique: Burning Blood of Uzamaki!" he shouted as the flame grew white hot and surrounded the sword. Itachi and Hisindo took one final glance at each other, then charged.

(Other side of konoha)

Gaara was not pleased. He could tolerate hosting a demon for the rest of his life, and he would welcome a death on the battle field. But what he would not stand for was being rescued, which is precisely what happened.

Kisame had been about to end his life when a young boy came out of nowhere and got him out of the way.

Gaara's savior looked at him, and smiled. "Don't worry, we can take care of him, no problem! My name is Hyoto, by the way!" The boy dressed in blue exclaimed in such a cheery manner that further repulsed Gaara.

Kisame looked over, not feeling particularly threatened by the newcomer. He only felt exasperated, "What hole in the wall do these vermin keep crawling out of? I-"

"Fwack!"

Kisame was cut short by a blow to the back of his head, sending him lurching forward. When he looked behind him, the tall boy in black stood, laughing under his bandages, "Maybe you should worry about yourself, you fish faced fuck..."

Kisame shrugged, wondered how someone snuck up on him, but decided not to ask. Rather he swung his blade directly into the youth.

"Havix!" Hyoto called out, worried for his partner.

But the tall youth, or Havix, continued to laugh as he pushed the blade against his skin, showing that kisame had failed to draw blood. "Hyoto!" He called out, "Finish him, I'm already bored!"

Hyoto sighed with relief, then fired freezing air out of his arms. Gaara stared at the technique, noticing the child didn't use chakra to do it. Rather two small slits on each arm opened up and the air rushed out.

The blast seemed to hit Kisame head on, leaving only a frozen statue, but all three ninjas knew better. It was obviously a water clone. But no one could react in time, as Kisame kicked Havix in the stomach, sending him flying towards Gaara and Hyoto. All three were on their knees as kisame began to swing down his blade, this time sure to draw blood.

(The Streets)

Lightning and fire seemed to fuse together, each attack holding the other off.

"I was hoping it wouldn't come to this!" Hisindo shouted over the raging noise, slamming his left hand into his blade, pushing it through the chidori. And then it was over.

Itachi's hand was burnt off, turning into ash in the wind. He stared at it for a moment before collapsing. He had witnessed the end of his life as a ninja.

Hisindo looked almost remorseful for a moment, before naruto jumped up and kicked him in the head.

"Why the hell didn't you do that in the first place?!? If it could break Chidori, then it could have cut him in two!!!"

Hisindo smiled weakly as he rose his left hand, the one he pushed the blade down with, to show naruto. It was badly burned, turned a charcoal grey and skin peeling off. "It's a strong technique, but I can't control it well." He laughed, "Funny, if I had become a ninja, I probably wouldn't have a problem..."

He and Naruto sat down to rest their nerves, unaware the fourth member of the Atksuki had been watching the whole fight. Gotuburo was about to strike.

"I can't believe you actually beat Itachi!" Naruto said, smiling at his elder brother.

"Well... it wasn't a very clean victory... if this had taken place in a usual battlefield, I probably would bleed to death before I got back to a city. And in most battles, he would have had backup..."

Gotuburo couldn't resist the invitation, before hisindo knew what happened, his face had been slammed against the ground, rendering him unconscious. The seven foot tall ninja rose to his feet as naruto jumped back. "Fox, you are coming with me..." he lunged again as naruto prepared to defend himself. Which was unnecessary, as another black clad figure jumped out, momentarily striking Gotuburo down.

"You know, I really did miss saving you... Idiot." The figure said calmly.

Naruto smiled, "I didn't ask, Sasuke-bastard."

(The other side of Konoha)

Gaara had shut his eyes for merely a second, as kisame was about to claim three victims. It was obvious he had forgotten he was supposed to take gaara alive. He opened his eyes to see he was a good fifty meters away from his last location, and elevated. He seemed to be standing on what looked like a large weapon, dug into the while of a building. He realized that he, and his would be saviors were being help by a large man.

The man dropped all three of the youths and dug his weapon out of the wall. He spoke to the two boys, "You both did well. The man you are currently fighting is an S class criminal."

Hyoto looked up, happy to see his teacher. "Do you know him, master?"

The man smirked underneath his bandages, "Hmph... he's in my book."

Kisame narrowed his eyes, "Zabuza."

End chapter.

Next Chapter: The genius and the hardworking dunce team up for the first time since their fight, to combat a deadly assassin. Meanwhile, two of the greatest mist ninjas clash in a land foreign to both of them.

Thanks for reading this far! I will have a new chapter next week. Oh, Haku will be in this, but will be a girl. Please review!


	19. Victories

I don't own Naruto, but as half of my reviewers pointed out, a crapload of these characters are mine.

Zabuza and Kisame had been staring at each other for two minutes, each with one hand on their swords. Kisame broke the silence, "So Zabuza, rumor had it you were killed. By a ninja from this worthless village, no less. Yet here you are, protecting it. Any reason you're back among the living."

"Feh," Zabuza let out, "All will one day bow to me. Death is no exception."

Kisame's face fell, but then changed to a toothy grin. "If you don't want to tell me, you could've just said so. But for your sake, I hope death is willing to bow again!" he shouted as he lunged toward zabuza. Zabuza guarded with his sword, but was driven back several feet.

On instinct, Zabuza slammed his fist onto a circular container on his vest, which released water. (bit of a costume change.) As the water fell he made the appropriate hand symbols, forming a large water dragon. Kisame made the same symbols, and the two dragons clashed half way between, giving the spectators an unpleasant shower.

Kisame rushed right threw the impact sight at an off guard zabuza. Kisame's hand ways two inches was to inches away from zabuza's neck when it was struck with three sebon needles. (Is sebon correct?) Kisame rose his head to the orgin of the attack, only to receive a whirling kick to the face. He fell toward the ground, but quickly rebounded. He noticed his attacker was another small child.

"Do not touch." The small girl said.

(Konoha's streets)

Gotuburo lunged with killing intent at the two children he recognized as the Kyuubi vessel and the younger surviving Uchiha. But he was quickly discovering that his large size was useful against normal sized adults, not children. He swiped his arm at Sasuke, but the young boy back flipped over it, and followed up with a drop kick to the face. Gotuburo stepped back in surprise, giving Naruto the opening for a quick punch to the groin.

"clunk!" the sound of metal resonating came from the blow.

"Ow, shit!" naruto exclaimed as he jumped back to where Sasuke was standing. "why the hell is your groin hard while your fighting twelve year old boys?" Naruto shouted.

Sasuke let out a small laugh. "He has an incredibly hard metal grafted to his skin. At the moment we are at a stalemate."

Naruto looked over quizzically. Sasuke continued, "He can't touch us, but we can't hurt him. And I'm certain we'll be exhausted before him. Also, with all the battles going on, we can't count on any allies that will make any sort of difference."

Naruto shot an angry look at his once again partner, "We are NOT running away!"

"Worse," Sasuke said, "We're going to work together."

Naruto looked over at sasuke, and immediately realized what he had in mind. Naruto started swirling chakra around in his hand as sasuke lunged forward to continue the battle with gotuburo. Gotuburo swung his massive arm sideways, narrowly missing sasuke.

Naruto focused his eyes on sasuke as he furiously kicked at the large man. Naruto waited for the perfect moment.

(The rooftops of konoha)

Tenten was lying on the ground, grasping her neck. She was bleeding from a small cut in her throat. Suro slowly walked to her, toying with a kunai in one hand. "End of the line for you..."

"NO!" Neji screamed. Both he and Rock Lee were hurt far worse than tenten. But nothing was going to stop neji. He hurled himself into battle, swinging violently at suro, trying to hit an opening point. He never came close.

"Please God, let me save her..." was the sole thought in his mind.

"Stupid kid." Suro said, as he drove the kunai deep into neji's side. As neji fell to the ground, suro took a moment to absorb his latest victory, a moment he didn't have. Rock Lee, refueled with rage, kicked him square in the stomach, a blow that launched Suro to another building top.

Tenten crawled over to her fallen comrade and cradled him in her arms.

"heuk..." neji struggled to speak as blood flowed out of his mouth. "I... I'm glad you're safe..."

As she smiled down weakly, Tenten forced back her tears, not going to let him see her cry. "Yes, you saved me... but you can't die."

Neji let out a small laugh, "why's that?"

"because if you die... I'll follow you."

Neji's eyes softened for a split second, then returned to there normal harsh state. "Tenten, I never had any intention of dying in this miserable state."

Tenten smiled, "same old neji."

(Naruto's battle)

Sasuke took a solid punch square in the stomach, sending him skidding back. Not missing a beat, sasuke sent his family legacy in the form of a giant fire ball, heating the metal plates. As Gotuburo recoiled back, sasuke leaped up and kicked him in the chin. Naruto saw his moment. Naruto rushed with a speed he had never achieved, but throughout his rush, he was able to catch a glimpse of sasuke smiling as he turned in the air.

"I think... everything's back to normal." Naruto thought as he hammered the raesangan into the darkly dressed man, shredding the heated metal and a good portion of flesh. As gotuburo screamed he heard the distinctive soaring sound. He never saw sasuke plunge his Chidori into the opening he and naruto had created together.

As blood rushed out of his mouth gotuburo addressed sasuke, "I... I see much of your... brother... in you."

Sasuke grin quickly turned to a fierce snarl. "There's more of him in you." He looked over to where his brother lay, bleeding to death and missing a hand. "You're both weak."

Gotuburo collapsed.

Naruto walked over to sasuke. The raven haired ninja turned around, "so what now?"

"well... I'm pretty hungry!"

(rooftops)

Suro smacked lee down yet again. "This kid is even more persistent than..." but his thought was interrupted when he realized both Gotuburo and Itachi had fallen.

"Fuck! That means Kisame has to be on his last leg!" he muttered as he bit his finger. "Summoning! Scavengers!" he shouted, and three pitch black vultures appeared. "Go collect my lesser. And don't eat them." He commanded.

The birds flew off leaving suro to complain, "Now I have to do the whole fucking thing my-" was all he said as lee caught him off guard yet again.

"Fucking kids..."

( the streets)

Zabuza's fist hammered down on Kisame's face, knocking three teeth out. Zabuza then moved his hand down to Kisame's, and with a flick of the wrist, broke all five of kisame's fingers. As the shark of the mist fell to his knees, zabuza raised his leg, and mercilessly kicked him in the face.

Kisame was struggling for breath. Not only did he pale in comparison to Zabuza , but he had failed to anticipate each of the children. He wasn't even paying attention as Zabuza slowly walked over to him, about to savor his kill. The black vulture swung down and carried the battered ninja away. Then it hit him.

"HAHAHAHA! I know what you're doing Zabuza! I know what those freaks are! You're even sicker than me for trying it!" Kisame grinned maliciously at Zabuza, no longer feeling remorse over losing to one he thought inferior.

Gaara appeared in front of Zabuza, "What did he mean 'I know what they are.' How were those three able to do better than mean."

"whatsdamatter? Your pride takin to big of a beatin'?" havix asked in a mocking tone.

Zabuza shot the tall youth a cold stare. "They aren't much different from you. But kisame was prepared for your unique abilities, not theirs. You see, all three possess a blood limit ability. And each one could combat whatever special techniques you know."

Gaara turned his back, but Zabuza continued. "They might even be able to best your... personal demons."

Gaara spun around with every intent to kill, but saw that all four had vanished. He suppressed his anger, and started tending to his comrades wounds.

(Rooftops)

"I'm a genius." Suro said, "not just at planning but at fighting. I've learened every fighting style and mastered every weapon. I was able to trounce that green wearing freak when he opened up the gates. But then you come along..."

He looked with hate at shikamaru, who looked like he was barely staying awake. "then you, the original ninety pound weakling, come along and trap me in some piss ass weak jutsu! It's inconceivable!"

Shikamaru let off a small smile. Suro continued. "But face it, I may copy what you do, but theres nothing that will knock me out! Even if you stabbed yourself, I'd walk away from it, and you'd lie here and bleed to death!"

Shikamaru. Pulled out a kunai and positioned it directly above his own head, point facing toward him. Suro was forced to mimic him. "You're right. Since you're so much stronger than me, even if I push what is my hardest, it'll be a small fraction of your muscle strength. So I'll have to use what is constant for both of us."

"Constant?" suro said, still in awe of how many steps a twelve year old was ahead of him.

Shikamaru continued, "Yes, a constant. Like gravity." And then, Shikamaru jumped off the building.

Quite literally a cliff hanger! Please review!

Preview: I ain't telling you shit.


	20. Fury

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Shikamaru fell through the air, having just jumped off one of Konoha's taller buildings. He jumped in order to take Suro, a member of the akatsuki, with him. In the fractions of a second he was falling, his life flashed before him, or what he considered the important parts of his life, which were just days he had spent just goofing off. Memories of watching clouds, sleeping through training, and finally the image of a golden haired girl.

(the streets of Konoha)

"He said the others were headed toward the south side?" sasuke shouted toward his partner.

"Yeah!" Naruto shouted back, "Then Gaara spazzed out and ran down there."

"Good, that'll buy us some time. But I don't think he can beat Kisame alone..."

Naruto squinted ahead, and then grinned. "Guess you thought wrong sasuke, I only see one person standing and he's got red hair..." Naruto was going to continue until his eyes caught a glimpse of a dark haired girl collapsed on the street.

"Hinata!" naruto rushed over to her side. His hands shook with worry, as he desperately tried to remember the basics of medicine Iruka had tried to teach him.

"N-naruto..." a small voice called in an attempt to calm him.

Naruto looked down and smiled as soon as he realized that her voice was quite due to her shyness and not an injury.

"Good, you're here." Gaara said to naruto, "and I see you've brought your lap dog." He added with a smirk as he shot a glance at sasuke.

"Gaara, sasuke thinks there might be another ninja lurking around the city, is that-"

"Yes. I believe the final member is fighting due west of here. I can't pursue him with you... I'm... bleeding. It's not safe for me to remain here." As he said this he started dissipating into sand. Gaara's eyes drifted downwards, as Ino woke up.

"Wha- Gaara!" she yelled, unsure of what was going on.

Gaara let off a small smile as he realized Ino was unharmed. "I'm glad I could protect you, Ino." He thought.

Naruto looked around and saw both kiba and shino were unconscious. "So Gaara did most of this himself?"

"Your observational skills are still lacking..." a voice rang out from above.

Naruto and Sasuke looked up and recognized two out of four figures immediately. Hinata didn't comprehend the situation, but moved behind Naruto out of instinct.

"So those are the two whelps that beat Haku, right?" Havix asked out loud.

"That's what we were told..." Hyoto replied, a little uncertain, as he had imagined the powerhouse called Naruto to be taller.

"Then I have to kill those two as well..." Havix thought, smiling maliciously under his bandages.

Haku appeared in front of Naruto without warning, after a moment of staying still, removed her mask as she smiled warmly at naruto, then hugging him deeply. Hinata let out a small 'eep' when this happened.

"This is weird," naruto thought, "most of my enemies try to kill me, not give me hugs... wait a minute... his chest feels like..." naruto broke away. Eyeing Haku, he asked "You're not a boy are you?"

Haku looked down, "um... no."

Naruto finally realized how tightly Hinata was holding onto his arm, shaking out of being nervous.

"This I don't need."

( the sky's over konoha)

Three black vultures each carried one fallen akatsuki member in there talons. Gotuburo was bleeding heavily from the chest. Kisame suffered from a few broken bones. They would both recover. Itachi was another story. While he probably had the least amount of injuries, his mental state was destroyed. After winning every time for seventeen years, a loss was too much to handle.

Itachi looked down at his left hand, which was burnt beyond repair. His life as a ninja was over, which could only mean his life was over. He didn't bother to look up as he was completely overshadowed by a giant snake. He didn't resist as the snake captured both him and his carrier in it's mouth.

Kisame looked over to Gotuburo, "I guess we're partners now."

(The woods surrounding Konoha)

The snake spit Itachi out in front of it's master. "Itachi... surprised to see me?"

"I... knew it... was you, bastard... just... how?"

Orochimaru stepped forward, and with one swift motion, gouged Itachis eyes with to fingers. "What does immortal mean to you?"

(Konoha)

Suro was panicking. He had always imagined dying in a battle with a hundred foes, not one skinny twelve year old kid who was disturbingly open to a suicide technique. Suro had realized there was no way out, imagine his surprise when he was hit by a hurricane force, which knocked him through a window a block down.

Shikamaru, on the other hand, was fortunate enough to be gently lowered by the breeze created by the female sand ninja. "Temari..."

"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING!" Temari screamed at him.

"I was TRYING to take out a threat to my village the only way possible!" Shikamaru shouted back. "Why do you care?"

"Why do I-" temari repeated, slightly amused, "You actually don't know..."

Shikamaru's brain kicked back in. "Three blocks down and five to the right."

"What?"

"We have to run there before he catches us." Shikamaru said as he pulled Temari. "It's a ninja supply store, the only place we might have an advantage."

While the two ninjas fled, suro pulled himself to his feet. He looked at his side which was lightly bleeding. He pulled out three shards of glass out, and from a distance of four blocks, hit shikamaru in the leg three times. "You're mine."

Shikamaru and Temari had made it to the supply store before being cut down, but barely. Suro had easily followed the trail of blood shikamaru was leaving. He effortlessly kicked down the door, and immediately regretted it. He looked at the walls lined with every weapon in existence, and he saw Temari swung her fan launching every weapon at him.

Suro raised his arms as he felt hundreds of cuts slice into them. As he felt the winds die down he lowered his arms, and stared at his bloody hands. As a weapons specialist and taijutsu master, nothing was as important to him as his hands. His eyes burned furiously at temari as he pounced upon her.

"Little BITCH!" he screamed as he delivered an uppercut to her face, causing her jaw to split. The blow was so hard it caused more blood to rush out of suro's hand. Before Temari had time to guard, suro elbowed her in the left eye, quickly followed by a swift kick to the stomach. Suro walked over to Temari, and grasping his hands around her neck, squeezing her neck hard enough to leave red marks. "If you think what you did to my hands was bad," he whispered into her ear as she coughed up blood, "I'm going to hurt you in every fucking way possible- erk."

Suro looked down and noticed he was once again under shikamaru's control, and had been forced to stab himself in the side. Shikamaru then tried to force the blade all the way to the stomach, but collapsed from blood loss and exhaustion. Suro dropped temari and lurched toward the skinny chuunin.

"Please God, give me a little strength..." Temari begged as she tried to lift her fan, to no avail. Her throat was beaten red, and blood filled her mouth. "Just let me save him..."

"Stop."

Suro turned around as seventeen ANBU appeared in the room. Suro's hate dissipated into a wicked smile as he dug the kunai out of his side. "Well, well. More fun."

(Nine minutes later)

Tsunade pushed aside every guard who had warned her to stay clear of the area. She stood in front of the ANBU captain. "I see you apprehended the final member."

The captain saluted, "Yes Hokage, but he managed to kill eight of my best men."

Tsunade was stunned, but recovered before anyone noticed. "Shit," she mentally scolded herself. "I'm supposed to protect this village, how did four of the most powerful ninjas slip by me?"

She raised he head. "Very well take him to Ibiki for interrogation."

"But..but Hokage... you can't hold this man in a prison... he's a monster! He should be killed on the spot!"

Tsunade turned to the captain and replied sternly, "He is the most valuable prisoner ever captured." And left the remaining ANBU to their duties.

Temari walked over to a heavily bandaged Shikamaru and sat down.

"Thank God we have a medic ninja as Hokage." Shikamaru said weakly.

Temari smiled at him as she lightly ran her hand over the bandage on shikamaru's stomach. "You did this to yourself... to protect me?"

"well... yeah."

"And you still don't know why I'd care if you died?"

"Ummm..."

Temari smiled seductively, forcefully pressing her lips against Shikamaru's.

They separated after a few moments. The only thing on Skiamaru's mind was how troublesome things were about to become.

(Hokage's Office)

Kakashi, Asuma, Kurenai, and Gai all stood in the office. Each one had been ambushed by an Akatsuki member while they were alone, causing them to miss the battle.

"I-I can't believe I lost so easily!" Gai said, choking back the tears, "I must run around to the fire country one hundred-"

"We don't have time for this." Tsunade stated plainly.

"Don't try to stop him... he's going to do it." Kakashi said, more than a little amused.

"People this event opened our eyes. We are still incredibly lacking in man power if our gennins had to fight S-class criminals for us." Tsunade addressed the teachers.

"Which is why I have decided to give full leaf citizenship to-"

"Me" Zabuza said as he stepped out of the shadows.

Kakashi looked at the man who he had long forgotten about, never having been alerted of his re-emergence. "Shit."

Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed. And I am really sorry this took so long. Next chapter will be sooner.


	21. Rebirth and Closure

This chapter proves a point; if you review, you get what you want. Since an majority of recent reviewers demanded to know about Zabuza's reappearance, here it is, a few chapters early. And for those of you how don't review, you can go and get cancer for all I care.

My apologies to those who review and still have cancer.

Oh and I don't own Naruto.

(The great Naruto bridge, two weeks after the incident.)

A young man stood in front of two unmarked graves, wondering if he was about to do the right thing. This man was the leader of the hidden in mist village, though not the one zabuza revolted against. That man had been assassinated eight days ago.

"Well, I actually don't have a choice, do I?" the man said with a smile, as he began flashing hand signals.

"Forbidden water art: water of rebirth!"

As soon as it was completed, waters that shined like the sun shot into the grave with a large sword behind it. The waters first pulled the corpse out of the grave, then completely enveloped it. The shimmering waters then poured into the twenty some puncture wounds in the back. The wounds having been sealed, the water started pushing and pulling on the body's limbs setting the bones back into place.

Finally, the water jumped off his body and shot into his mouth. A second later the once dead man's eyes opened and stared at his savior. After his he adjusted to the light, he recognized the young man. "K-korin? Where am… what are you doing… why the hell are you wearing those rags?"

"I'm wearing these 'rags' because I've been promoted to leader of the mist, after my predecessor bit the dust. A promotion that I'm sure you would've received if you hadn't revolted and pissed everybody off!"

Zabuza glared at the young man, "Why did you revive me? How could you possibly benefit from that?"

"Well, besides the enjoyment of your sparkling conversation skills, I need you to do a mission for me!"

Zabuza's glare changed to a dumbfounded stare, "you're obviously joking…"

"I never joke… well, not right now anyway. You see… actually this is a long story, so if you want to get a snack or something…"

Zabuza's glare returned.

"Okay, okay! But don't say I didn't warn you! Now our beloved leader didn't just die… he was assassinated, an undetectable poison in his food. But it took us too long to figure out the hows, whos, and whys. To avoid looking weak and incompetent in front of the other villages, we lied and released a statement saying it was of natural causes. No one questioned it, but immediately after we found evidence that pointed to one of the legendary ninjas of Konoha-"

"Orochimaru?" zabuza broke in, getting interested in the conversation.

"You got it. Anyway, the evidence also points out that he's gonna go after other village leaders, most notably, the sand leader and the hokage of the leaf. Now, we can't openly call him on it because we released the statement about 'natural causes' and we can't look weak blah, blah, blah. However we did secretly warn the leaf's Hokage, because let's face it, Orochimaru is his fuck up. He said he would deal with it when the time comes. But that just doesn't cut it for me."

Korin stood up, and possessing all the authority of the hidden mist village, assigned Zabuza his first mission in years. "So your mission is, if the leaf village does fall pray to Orochimaru, but somehow comes out alive, you are to reinforce the numbers with a traditional three genin group!"

Zabuza stared at Korin, who was simply ecstatic about the idea. "Why the hell would you ever think I would do this? Or that I'm the right man to do this?"

Korin didn't miss a beat, "You're the right man because, as far as anybody knows, you and that genin team from the leaf fought off a bunch off mercenaries on this bridge so it could be built. Lucky for us, whoever wrote the report on the mission was lazy as hell. And I know you'll do it because you're a man of your word, and I'm going to make you promise to do it, or else I won't revive your friend."

Zabuza looked over to haku's grave, and without a second thought, "I'm in."

(present time: Konoha)

"What the fuck do you mean we're staying here?" havix screamed at zabuza, who had presented him with a leaf headband. "I thought we were just staying here until that tournament!"

Hyoto cheerfully took his headband and started tying it to his mist headband so they would both show. "I don't mind staying here! It's a lot cooler than most places in the fire country. Plus, they've got good food and nice people!"

"I don't care about good food! I want to fight some strong people! But here, I'm already stronger than most of the jounins!"

This would be a good time to mention that Zabuza's team was attending an orientation, which served to welcome than to the village. Also attending were all the three man teams and their leaders. None of this seemed to affect Havix.

"And what the hell do ya mean there all nice people? We've only met that one team, and they won't stop fucking staring at us!" Havix shouted as he pointed at the once again complete team seven. Truthfully, only naruto and sasuke were staring. Kakashi might've been, but with one eye covered, who can tell? And Sakura was hiding behind her team, still afraid of Zabuza.

She was joined by Hinata, who, as the heir to the most prestigious clan in Konoha, was supposed to present the leaf headbands as part of the ceremony. However, Hinata was frightened away by the argument.

Zabuza opted to end the conversation, "Havix, you have no where else to go. So until I say otherwise, we are staying here. Understand?"

Havix frowned at him for a second, then grabbed the headband and stormed out. At this moment, Tsunade walked up and addressed zabuza. "What's wrong with that child?"

"More than you could imagine…" Zabuza muttered, still furious.

"No, I mean with his body… it's not… right."

Zabuza was surprised for a moment, then underneath his bandages, smirked. "You noticed that despite all the bandages he wears? You are the greatest medic-nin. You are correct. His misshapen body is a result of his mental powers."

"How's that?"

"Besides the ability to read minds and mentally command weaker minds, he can also command himself, in this case, he has commanded his body multiple times to heal itself at an accelerated rate."

"But that will dramatically shorten his lifespan." Tsunade said alarmed.

"Not in his case, but that's another issue. The problem is, his body heals quickly, not correctly. I believe this has lead to him having misshapen limbs, as well as his unusual height."

Tsunade took a minute, she felt sorry for the young child, as rude as he was. "Please allow me to heal him."

"I will, but repair his body is my second priority."

"Hmm?"

"First I have to fix his mind."

(Ramen Stand)

"And this is the single best place to eat in konoha!" Naruto exclaimed as he proudly pointed to the ramen stand. He had taken it upon himself to show Haku and Hyoto around Konoha. Hinata went with them, since she followed Naruto everywhere, and Kiba and Shino came along to make sure nothing happened.

"It does smell really good…" Hyoto said, slightly drooling.

Shino had been studying Hyoto for a few minutes into the meal before he spoke to him. "Where do you hail from? You have several body traits that I have never seen before."

Naruto looked up confused. " whadda mean unique?"

Kiba let out a laugh, "For one thing he has light blue hair you idiot."

Hyoto swallowed the noodles in his mouth, happy to tell anything about himself. "Before I met zabuza, haku, and havix, I lived up north in the artic tundra."

"What made you wanna ride with these freaks?" Kiba asked as Hinata cringed at the question.

Hyoto's smile grew, "It seemed like an adventure!"

(several hours later)

Kakashi appeared behind Zabuza. "Do you want something?"

Kakashi ignored the impolite greeting. "Earlier you mentioned that… Havix had physic powers? So then the boy holds a blood limit?"

Zabuza groaned, he had hoped to keep the secret a while longer. "Yes, each one posses a powerful blood limit."

Kakashi had a few more questions, "But neither of the two boys has had previous ninja training…"

"No, both Hyoto and Havix are from areas outside the fire country. Hyoto's people had never even heard of ninjas…"

"And Havix's people?"

Zabuza paused, unsure if he should continue. "Havix has no people. He is the last of a somewhat savage race."

"What happened to them?"

"They were wiped out… by him."

"What!?!"

Zabuza smirked at Kakashi's reaction. "Yes, from what I was able to gather from his story, the blood limit he posses had been awakened in several others of his tribe, and as a ritual, they were immediately cut open and set ablaze as a sort of sacrifice."

Zabuza waited for a reaction, but Kakashi didn't say a word. "While he was being sacrificed his powers protected him. He created an immense physic blast that shattered his would be sacrificers skulls. The blast also blew most of his skin off, though it grew back much tougher. This happened when he was about eight, and he spent the next six years wandering his country until I decided to take him."

Kakashi showed a bit of surprise. "Six years? How was he not killed?"

"Hah! The boy has survival instincts. You remember I said I had to fix his mind? Because after the shock of killing his family, he automatically desensitized himself in almost every way. He can kill without remorse and his nerves have been altered so he can't feel pain."

"It seems to me that you would be fine having him like that." Kakashi said with a tone of disgust, "A perfect killing weapon."

Zabuza laughed, "Not quite. Because of this 'block' it is very difficult for him to learn ninja techniques. Though to his credit, the ones he knows are extremely effective and brutal…"

Zabuza started disappearing into mist, "And when I unlock that boys true power, I will have the perfect killing army."

Kakashi stared to where zabuza had been standing. "An army out of three children? Zabuza, what horrible things are you planning?"

(Outside Sasuke's apartment, four a.m.)

Sasuke rose out of bed, awakened by the smell of fresh blood. He walked to his window to see his brother, hanging from five hooks, each dug into his skin. Itachi's arm had also been ripped off, and his legs were badly broken.

Sasuke's expression was deathly cold. "A gift from Orochimaru, I presume."

"heh," Itachi spoke weakly, "you… presume correctly." He raised his head, revealing two badly slashed eye sockets.

"So, the snake took your sharingan, hmm?" sasuke asked, completely devoid of compassion.

"No, I took my own eyes, just to spite him. Probably makes your life harder, now you're one of a kind."

"I have you to blame for that, don't I?" Sasuke replied, fighting to keep his anger under control.

"I know you aching to ask why I did it, but your pride keeps getting in the way. I don't know why, you have nothing to be proud of." Itachi said, as he twisted his broken jaw into a smile. "Know this, little brother, your fate will be worse than mine. Orochimaru will come and take your eyes, and then your life. And he will succeed. After all, how could you triumph where I, the greatest of Uchiha, failed?"

Sasuke thought for a moment. "I will triumph, because I won't be alone." Itachi's head lifted slightly at this. Sasuke flashed several hand signals, and set his brother on fire. Itachi bit through his tongue so he wouldn't give sasuke the satisfaction of a scream.

As Itachi's ashes scattered to the wind, sasuke fell to his knees, and began to weep. "Father… Mother… I avenged you, please don't hate me for it."

(End Chapter)

Putting all joking aside, I worked a lot harder than usual for this chapter, and some extra input would be greatly appreciated. Next chapter will deal more with sasuke's grief over killing the last of his family, Hyoto's origins, and maybe some fight scenes. IF YOU REVIEW.

Thanks for reading!


	22. Hate and his Savior

I don't own Naruto

(Sasuke's home)

It was five in the morning when the ANBU in charge of body disposal had arrived, although Itachi's body had mostly been disposed. For the first time ever Kakashi arrived before them in order to comfort Sasuke.

"I hate the winter, too damn cold." Sasuke said, his first words he had spoken.

"Yeah. It's the first day of winter and it's already colder than last year." Kakashi replied as he handed Sasuke a blanket.

"Thanks."

Kakashi sighed, "Sasuke, are you going to be alright?"

"Of course, why wouldn't I be?" sasuke answered in a distant tone.

"Because you're not your brother. Watching a family member die takes everything out of most people."

Sasuke started shaking, "I-I've waited half my life for this moment… why didn't I see what it would feel like?" Kakashi could only watch as Sasuke broke down.

(Hours later)

Naruto stared at the mission board. He had been eagerly awaiting the first mission of the reformed team seven. But as he stared at the board, all he saw was a few words with a big black strip that read cancelled across them.

"What the hell is this?" Naruto shouted.

"Keep your voice down."

Naruto turned around to see shikamaru, sitting lazily on a bench.

"Some people actually enjoy being a ninja! Some people have better uses than sitting around staring at clouds!"

Shikamaru ignored the comment, "You should be grateful you're free today, your girlfriend is most likely going to need support after her mission. "

Naruto turned around and looked for team Kurenai's mission. He finally saw that they were to track down a gang of banbits hiding in the hills. The stressful part was that they were teamed with Zabuza's cell. "Oh man… poor Hinata. She's intimidated by Haku for some reason, and scared by death of that Havix guy." He stopped abruptly, and stared at Shikamaru. "How did you know about me and Hinata?"

Shikamaru smirked. "I wasn't sure until just now. But you haven't been talking to sakura much recently, and the only girl who would ever give you a shot is Hinata. But the question is… why haven't you been bragging about it?"

Naruto sat down next to Shikamaru, "Hinata is scared to death of her family, so she wants to keep it private as long as we can. As for myself, I'm not looking forward to fighting off ,like, a hundred Nejis."

Shikamaru laughed at the image.

"Hey shikamaru, since we want to keep this a secret… um… don't tell Ino."

(just outside Konoha)

Kurenai, Shino, Kiba, and Hinata were casually going over attack plans when Zabuza and his team showed up. "I apologize for our arriving late, we had to rearm ourselves at your weapons depot." Zabuza said in a cold manor.

Kurenai looked down at her watch, "Ummm… you're only two minutes late."

"Yes."

Kurenai let out a small laugh. "Listen, don't ever get paired with Kakashi for a mission."

Zabuza tilted his head slightly, as this was not the first time he had been told that.

Kurenai decided to get down to business. "Before the mission starts, I'd like to go over our teams personality types, fighting styles, and things of that nature, in order to eliminate unnecessary casualties."

Zabuza nodded, "Haku is a long distance weapons expert with astounding speed, Hyoto has his own taijutsu style which stems from his ability to release freezing winds from his arms and legs, and Havix is a brawler who focuses on doing the most damage to an opponent as possible. Now… how many… 'casualties' are you expecting on the bandits side?"

"You mean deaths? No one of my team has ever killed before, has someone on yours?" Kurenai asked, a bit unnerved.

"Haku has many times on my command, and Havix relishes any chance to cause death. Hyoto however is quite against killing, and after a battle will do his best to heal opponent's wounds."

Kurenai stared in disbelief. "How have they killed before? I mean they're just genins…"

Zabuza clearly smirked underneath his bandages, "They may be the same age as yours, but they are not of equal skill. The reason I have not had them made chunins was because I don't want to deal with their inflated egos. Now, how well armed are these bandits."

"Yo," Havix interrupted, "I just wanna clear something up… bandits are, like, those missing nins, right."

Kurenai was looking for a punch line, but Zabuza knew it was a legitimate question from someone who started learning language a few months ago. "Their status is the same, however they are normal people, with no jutsu's."

Underneath his bandages, Havix's nostrils flared. He leaned up to zabuza's ear. "If I wanted to fight normal people, I woulda stayed back home!"

Zabuza stopped him from continuing, "For once, you are correct." He whispered back into his ear. "These missions are beneath all of us, and I will speak to the Hokage about getting us something more challenging. That being said, you will sit this mission out, I don't want to traumatize the konoha genins. Just go train." As an added incentive, Zabuza handed Havix his sword. Havix grinned as he gripped in his hands, and walked off.

As Zabuza and Kurenai began to go over more battle plans. Hinata crept over to Haku, "Umm… h-hello."

Haku looked over to the trembling girl and smiled politely. "Hello."

Hinata took a step back, then asked her question, "Do you… um… like… Naruto."

Haku giggled slightly at the poor girl's shyness. "Yes, yes I do," haku answered, still in her polite tone, "And to answer your next question, I do intend to take him from you. I'm sorry."

Hinata looked down at her shoes. She couldn't blame Haku for wanting to try, she knew if naruto had wanted to be with someone else, she would try to break them up. But Hinata would never be able to do anything like that…

"Alright teams, time to move!" Kurenai shouted.

(Konoha's prison)

Ibiki, the interrogation specialist, stood before Suro, the captured Akatsuki member, who was bolted to a chair. On both of Ibiki's sides was an ANBU. The interrogation had been going on for the last eight hours, with no leads as of yet.

"You're not making this easy."

Suro groaned. Two hours ago Ibiki had pounded his nose until blood was gushing out, then forced his head back so Suro would be forced to swallow the fluid. His nose had stopped bleeding five minutes ago. "fhh hu… hu sruuu succ skkk sttt" Suro let out, the blood caked to his throat interfering with his answer.

Ibiki chuckled inwardly. "Bring this scum some water, I want to know what he said."

An ANBU put a water bottle under Suro's face. Suro attacked the straw and quickly drank the contents of the bottle, than let off a content little sigh. "I said 'fuck you, you scrotum sucking, sphincter sniffing, sack of shit'."

Ibiki laughed outwardly this time, but only to conceal his frustration. It had never taken him more than two hours to extract information, but he hadn't made a crack in Suro's will.

"Ya wanna know the first thing I'm gonna do when I get outta here? I'm gonna take a shit on the thirds grave."

Suro had touched one of Ibiki's nerves, the penalty of which was a harsh blow to the teeth. Suro smiled, having gotten the reaction he wanted. His smile showed that one of his teeth had been knocked out, and after playing with the tooth in his mouth for a few moments, he spit it at an ANBU. The impact split his mask and entered his skull, killing him. As his body dropped to the floor, Suro looked over to Ibiki, "May I have another glass of water?"

(One hour after Team Kurenai and Zabuza's mission began)

All of team eights head were hung low, an action usually reserved for just one of it's members. They had seen powerful gennins before. They had seen Gaara slaughter a whole team without moving. They had seen sound nins turn to monsters. They had even seen children from their own village do what seemed impossible. But today was different. They accepted the fact that some were born with greater power, today they witnessed skill. They had witnessed Haku and Hyoto drop forty seven bandits in three minutes, while all they could do is stare.

Currently, Haku and Hyoto where running ahead, racing each other. Haku used her natural speed while Hyoto vastly increased his stride by firing cold air out of his arms and legs. Zabuza didn't bother trying to keep up, and he knew there was no one in the village who could dispose of the two children together.

Kurenai discreetly walked up to Zabuza. When she reached him, she spoke in a harsh tone, "Zabuza, what the hell was that? You do know that these kids are barely teenagers, and they don't need to have their confidence shot!?!"

Zabuza grunted, "I… made a mistake. I assumed by sending Havix away and not exposing them to death would suit their needs. I didn't expect them to be so far below Haku and Hyoto. Unfortunately, my only knowledge I had of Konoha gennins derived from Naruto and Sasuke. But I see most of the children here are more like that quivering pink haired girl. Most have not experienced true pain."

"Stop talking down to Konoha genins! There are only a handful of people in the world who could compete with those two! Why the hell are they doing Genin missions!?!"

"I'm trying to give them some taste of a normal life!"

By this point talking discreetly had devolved into to screaming at each other, and team eight decided not to wait up for the two. They spent the rest of the night yelling at each other.

(Back at Konoha)

All of team eight had gathered at the gate, where Naruto, Shikamaru, and Temari were waiting for them. Temari was hanging off the arm of shikamaru, the reason why was unknown to naruto, but obvious to everyone else.

Also there was Haku and Hyoto, who were both lying on the ground, breathing heavily after their race. "You did… gasp… much better this time… Hyoto." Haku said sweetly.

Hyoto beamed at the compliment, "Thanks… wheeze… haku!"

Naruto had been standing next to hinata asking how the mission wnet until he asked, "Hey where's that other guy? The tall freak?"

Hyoto picked himself off the ground. "Well, there's no way he's still training… and since he has Zabuza's sword, he probably went of to kill something."

"what?"

Hyoto continued to smile, "Oh don't worry! There's plenty of deer around these parts. But that wouldn't take so long, soooo…. Do you have any hot springs here?"

Haku picked herself of the ground, "Oh yes, that is where he would be! Havix uses the hot spring to help his body."

"Ok, I'll show you where ours is!" naruto exclaimed. "I could use a dip anyways! Anyone else in?"

Hinata looked over to Haku, and decided that the girl couldn't be trusted to be anywhere near Naruto and naked. "I-I'll go."

Teamri spoke for herself and Shikamaru, "we're in!"

"I'm out." Said shino, who, because of the bugs living inside of him, need to bathe in very particular conditions.

"I'll go. After that mission, I could use some relaxing." Kiba said.

"was the mission that hard?" shikamaru asked, fainting interest.

Kiba looked down and said nothing.

(Konoha hot springs)

Havix sat alone in the hot springs, which he had learned from others would relax his muscles. Since he had no feeling, he had taken their word on the subject.

He was only alone because he had 'convinced' all the other patrons to leave. Some of the springs water had been soaked into his bandage which still covered most of his body, but the moisture caused the bandages to slip, revealing some of his skin. It was a dark gray, with various spots of red where some deep wounds had been.

"HEEEEEY HAVIX!!!" screamed Hyoto has he cannonballed into the pool. As he did so the hot water relaxed all his muscles, which caused freezing air to start seeping out.

"Stay OUT!" Havix shouted as he pitched Hyoto out of the pool. When he looked to his side, he saw that the pool had become infested with lower ninjas.

Over in the womens baths, Temari tried to enjoy herself, which was difficult due to the obvious tension between Hinata and Haku. Haku was using every chance she had to point out her body was superior to hinata's, while hinata tried to stare daggers at her.

"So, why weren't you with them on their mission?" asked shikamaru, wanting to know how a person could get out of a troublesome mission.

"Pfff… Zabuza knows my talents are better suited then for hunting down some regular bastards."

"Oh… then you are the strongest of your team?" shikamaru said somewhat doubtfully, having heard some of naruto's stories about Haku.

"Hell yeah!" Havix yelled.

"He's stronger than me, that's for sure!' Hyoto said happily as he was splashing water around. (he had been made to sit in the corner of the spring.)

"And Haku?" naruto asked.

"Hah! Like any woman could be stronger than me!" Havix shouted loud enough to be heard in the woman's bath. Haku was used to his comments and Hinata knew that he was stronger then her. Temari, however, was severly pissed off.

"Hey, I'd bet a years supply of ramen that granny tsunade could kick your ass!" Naruto said.

"Well yeah, but she's one of the legendary three. And even with her super strength, she's still the weakest of the three, not to mention the weakest hokage." Havix said laughing. "Men are naturally stronger than…"

"BOOM"

The walls of the hot spring were knocked down by a giant gust of wind. When the dust settled, temari stood clad in a towel and holding her giant fan, ready for battle. "I've heard enough of your shit to last a lifetime, which is good, cause your life is over." She swept fan down, creating a bombardment of razor winds.

However, Havix was unfazed by the attack. He ran his tongue over his lips conveying his anticipation. "heh heh heh… you aren't very smart, are you girl? Challenging a mist ninja to a fight while your surrounded by steaming hot water… YOU'RE FUCKING DEAD!!!" as he screamed, the springs erupted with water dragons all launching towards Temari.

Exactly three inches from temari's face the dragon froze, literally. Separating her and the water beast was Hyoto. Havix broke through the frozen statues with his fists, then snarled at the young boy, "What's the matter, Hyoto? Still don't like seeing blood." The word blood dripped off his tongue with a sort of lust.

Hyoto ignored the taunt, instead he looked up at Havix with a sorrowful smile, "Havix… you have to stop this. I know you've had a life that I couldn't comprehend, but you can't just lash out at people. One day, you're going to go to far…"

Havix smile warped. "And what'll happen that day? Who will stop ME? You?"

"No. But I would die trying."

Havix took this as a challenge and prepared himself to tear Hyoto limb from limb, but was startled by a hand on his shoulder. It was Zabuza.

"Now, now havix. There's no need for your blood lust. Tomorrow you will have more opponents then you'll know what to do with."

"Oh?"

"Yes. Tomorrow is the tournament for genins and chunnins." Zabuza lowered himself to Havix's ear. "everyone you want to kill in one place. Get far enough and I'll let you use my sword."

Havix paused for a moment, "Fine." Then walked off.

Zabuza turned to hyoto. "Good work."

(Outside the hotspring)

Gaara had seen the whole thing. He had been prepared to create a sand wall to save his sister. He waited because he didn't want to explain why he was spying on the hot springs. In truth, we wanted to see what intentions the shikamaru whelp had with his sister. But his eyes followed havix as he left.

"He is… how I was." Gaara said to himself. "Maybe… I can save him."

Next chapter: the tournaments opening rounds!

Thanks for reading! Please review!

IMPORTANT NOTE: could someone leave me a list of the official names of the village leaders? It would be appreciated.


	23. Round One!

Don't own Naruto.

(Konoha's prison)

Suro sat in his cell, still bolted to his chair. The Konoha gaurds had recently given the chair a new feature. It was a bolt that drove into his neck, bending it to as close to ninety degrees without breaking. "So now they're laying sleep deprivation on me, huh? God, that Ibiki must get off on this or something…"

Suddenly there was a dark cloaked man standing in front of Suro. The mans arms and legs were completely metal, the fingers resembling claws more than anything else.

Suro recognized the man, "I'm surprised they sent you to finish me, Anakaris. I thought they would send Itachi to kill me as some sort of Christmas bonus."

Anakaris chuckled lightly, "I'm not going to kill you, Suro. Our numbers have dwindled slightly and we can't afford to honor that archaic tradition."

"Some one bit it?"

"Itachi."

Suro was slightly taken back, but dismissed the thought as soon as all his shackles were released. He quickly stood up and started stretching. A loud crack emanated.

"Been there awhile?" anakris said jokingly.

"You have no idea… hey did you leave any of the guards alive? I could really use a warm up."

"I left all of them alive and so will you. I know this is a foreign idea to you, but we're going to try and leave subtly."

"Fine… hey… remind me to tell the boss to keep an eye on this place… it's a breeding ground for geniuses."

Anakaris grinned, "I'll do that."

(Daybreak, the stadium)

Iruka and Anko were setting up a check-in booth for participants. "Hey, Iruka! How come you always sign up for the worst jobs when it comes to these tests?"

"Last time, it was so I could check up on a former student of mine. This time it's so I can see all the fights."

Tak.

Anko and Iruka turned to see the first contestant to arrive, Gaara of the sand.

Anko recognized the boy, "What happened? Couldn't sleep?"

Gaara turned to face her, "a year ago I would have peeled the flesh off your bones for that comment."

Anko laughed inwardly at the threat while Iruka handed gaara the forms to enter. It was going to be a long day.

(6:00 A.M, uchiha residence)

Sasuke sat up in bed and stared at the clock and date. "It's today… the tournament." He paused for a moment. "Heh… enough sulking around. I have to reclaim my reputation. Today naruto, I will defeat you."

(Konoha's rooftops)

Havix stood looking at the sky, it was dark, filled with rain clouds. "It's a good omen, especially for a mist ninja." He looked down at his hand, which was shaking from anticipation. "There are four challenges here, I want to kill each one of them."

Inside the building, zabuza addressed the rest of the team. "Remember, this isn't important, the only one you should go all out on is Havix. We don't want to show these weaklings too much. Understood?"

Both Haku and Hyoto nodded in agreement.

(Tournament Grounds)

The first round was minutes away, there had been no incidents, which was strange. Even stranger was that almost everyone had arrived on time. The exception was shikamaru, who had to be forced to participate. Tsunade stepped up and addressed the large audience. "Thank you all for attending, I assure you that you will not regret it!" a large cheer resonated from the audience.

Once Tsunade was finished, Genma turned to the young ninjas to explain the rules (A/N I liked Hayate better). "Okay the order for each round will be decided by random drawings, preformed by a computer and will be shown on that screen."

Naruto raised his hand, but spoke before being addressed. "What the hell! Why can't we know who we're fighting?"

Neji hit Naruto in the back of the head, "It's to more closely represent a battle senerio, idiot! You usually won't know who you're fighting." Naruto glared at Neji and started hoping he could fight him again just to teach him a lesson.

"Now the first match will be…" Genma said as the screen lit up and names started flashing around. "Naruto…"

"YES!!!"

"Versus… Shino."

"Hm…"

"Everyone else, please clear the arena."

While everyone walked out naruto distanced himself from shino. "Shit! This is the worst luck! Not only is this guy a lot smarter than me, I have no idea how to fight him! And I can't use my good techniques because it's only the first round."

Shino stood still. "Hm… should be interesting."

"Begin!"

Naruto started flashing hand symbols, causing four shadow clones to appear. "Alright!" naruto thought, "He's made of bugs, so he can't be great at hand to hand!"

As the five narutos rushed towards shino, he drew out a kunai and slashed at a Naruto, causing it to turn to smoke. He was then tackled by the remaining four. "Damn, I can't just guess, my odds are too poor." Shino flicked his hand, sending a bug to each naruto, then flipping out of the pile.

"Heh, retreating already!" naruto chided. Then he looked to his sides and noticed his clones were melting. "Nooooo! Crap! I'm good at this now, what happened?" the clones continued to melt until they all turned to smoke. "oh! I get it! Your bugs absorb chakra, so you put them on all of us knowing I'd be the only one left! But that means…" naruto looked down to see he was covered with about thirty bugs.

"It's over naruto." Shino said quiet and confidently.

"Urg… NOT YET!" naruto screamed while summoning a small portion of the Kyubi's chakra. As the blue chakra turned to fire, shino's bugs started popping at the high pressure. Shino took a step back, unsure of what to do. Naruto took his pause and struck him square in the stomach, causing him to collapse.

"I… surrender." Shino said, while spitting out a bit of blood.

"What? Already?"

"Yes, if my bugs can't affect you, there's no point in sending them to die." Shino turned, and walked out of the arena.

Genma watched the bug boy for a moment, then turned to naruto. "Winner, Uzamaki Naruto! Do you wish to continue?"

"Hell Yeah!"

The stadium erupted with cheers. Naruto smiled happily and ran up to the contestant's area. He was congratulated by many of the ninjas. Sasuke was the first. "Keep it up, idiot, I want to fight you this time…"

"If you don't it'll be because of your screw up, not mine, sasuke bastard!"

Gaara didn't bother to move, but muttered to himself, "As expected."

Ino, who was standing next to him, was surprised. "really, I wasn't so sure…"

Gaara turned his head, "There are three people here who have a chance against him."

Haku walked over to naruto, "that was very… impressive, naruto." She batted her eyes as she spoke in her most seductive tone.

"Th-thanks." Naruto replied. Then everyone started listening for the next fight. Meanwhile, Naruto walked over to hinata who was in the unpopulated corner of the room.

"That w-was a very g-good fight Naruto."

"Thanks Hinata!"

Hinata turned her head downward, then up towards Naruto. "N-naruto… do you think Haku… is p-p-pretty?" by the end of her sentence, her voice was barely a squeak.

Naruto darted his eyes around to make sure no one was listening, then moved close to hinata, "actually… from what I've gathered about Haku… I am almost positive…"

Hinata started shaking, sure she was about to be dumped.

"that Haku is a shemale." Naruto finished.

Hinata blinked. She thought back to last night, where she shared a hot spring with Haku. She was most definitely all woman. She looked up at naruto, "I-I think you're right."

Naruto smiled, then looked down to Genma.

"Next match… Tenten versus…"

Tenten gracefully jumped down, drawing three kunai into each hand as she dropped.

"Havix."

Havix stayed silent for a moment, then shrugged. "well… may as well start with the appetizer." He dropped down, his landing causing some dirt to be kicked up.

Tenten glared at the large boy. "This 'appetizer' is going to leave you eating through a tube!"

"Begin!"

Tenten jumped back while throwing three Kunai at Havix. Havix raised his left arm towards his face, letting all three hit him. "Nice aim. Your throw is pretty good to… you almost drew blood." Havix laughed as all three knives dropped out of his arm.

Tenten was slightly taken back, but smirked to hide it. "That was just the warm up!"

Haivx let out a howl. "All you are is a warm up!" he suddenly charged tenten. In an effort to dodge, she jumped straight up. Unfortunately, havix's arm was longer than she thought, as he grabbed her foot and slammed her into the ground.

Tenten struggled to get up, "won't… lose." As she got to her knees, havix kicked her in the left cheek, knocking her out.

"Winner, havix! Do you wish to continue?"

"HAH! Well, as exhausting as that was… I think I'm up for another round!"

The more blood thirsty members of the audience cheered loudly, while most clapped politely. As havix headed back to the contestants area, tenten was taken out by a stretcher. Haku and Hyoto smiled at their victorious partner as he entered, but when they moved to talk to him, they were shoved aside by Neji and Rock Lee.

"What are you staring at?" Havix questioned with amusement in his voice, "I didn't kill her… I think."

"Next match… Sakura versus…"

Sakura quickly ran down the stairs, deciding against a flashy entrance.

"Neji!" Genma then examined the pairing, "Neji? Oh shit!" he whispered to himself as he looked over to Sakura. Sakura shot him a determined smile.

Neji arrived, having also taken the stairs.

"Begin!"

Sakura felt a presense behind her a jumped back through the air, while launching a kunai towards neji. The knife hit, but the ninja turned to smoke. Immediately after sakura landed, she was hit in the back of the neck, causing her to pass out. Neji caught her before she hit the ground.

"Winner, Neji! Do you wish to continue?"

Neji laid sakura on the paramedic stretcher. "Yes."

The audience clapped politely, except for a few whistles from Neji's female admirers.

Before neji arrived, Rock Lee walked over to Naruto. "Remember, Naruto, this was just a match. You know Neji didn't want to do that."

"Hmph." Naruto turned his head. In truth, he had expected Neji to fight like he had against hinata, in which case, Naruto would have killed him. Rock Lee ran over to congratulate his teammate.

"Next match… Hyoto versus…"

Hyoto pumped his fist in the air like he had accomplished something. He then jumped over the ledge and fell into the trees, getting stuck momentarily. Some where in the arena, Zabuza groaned.

"Hinata!"

Hinata let out a small gasp. She was about to panic, when naruto took her hand. "I know you'll win!"

Hinata nodded and headed toward the stairs, positive she didn't want to attempt jumping down.

Genma looked at the Hyuga girl, whose head was raised just enough to see her opponent. He then shifted his gaze to the young boy, who was covered with leaves, but still smiling. "Begin!"

Hyoto rushed towards Hinata, but jumped back as soon as she activated her Byakugen and took the gentle fist stance. Hyoto looked cautiously, expecting death beams to come from them. "Right," he thought to himself, "she attacks internally, like the Neji guy." Hyoto smiled at his revelation, as he reached towards his vest, and tapping one of the spheres on it, released water onto the field. He sent the water to cover the whole field, though hinata was able to keep the area around her dry. Finally hyoto pushed his arms into the ground, turning the water to a thin layer of ice.

Naruto stared, "what kind of technique is that? He's the one on the ice!"

Havix laughed, "Hyoto was born on the tundra up north. Just watch."

Hyoto clapped his hands while water culminated around him. Suddenly, skates made of ice attached to the bottom of his feet, and to his wrists. He took a short breath, then rushed towards his opponent.

Naruto's eyes blugged, "Fast!"

Hyoto jumped directly over hinata, and used the air jets from his arms and legs to hover over the girl. He started rapidly striking hinata, while hinata parried the blows. Hinata started looking for answers, "I can't use my new technique this early… I need it later. Calm down… if I cloud just close those air vents." Her eyes lit up. Her hand shot up and she hit the vent on his right arm, sealing it. The air blockage on the right side caused air to be pushed out of the left too strongly, which sent Hyoto flying into the wall head first.

Genma easily slid over to hyoto, then called out, "Winner, Hinata!"

The crowd cheered uproariously.

"Do you wish to continue?"

Hinata examined her body, which had been torn up a bit. Her jacket had been reduced to shreads. Then she looked up towards Naruto. "Y-yes."

Genma smiled as the girl carefully walked towards the contestants area. She was applauded by every leaf ninja, especially Naruto. "Told you you'd win!"

Hinata blushed at all the attention.

"The next match… Ino!"

Ino ran down the stairs, not wanting to jump down on the ice. Once she reached the bottom, she gracefully slid over to genma.

"Versus… Sasuke!"

Sasuke pushed himself off the railing and landed in the spot hinata had cleared.

"Begin!"

Ino took a fighting pose, careful not to move. "Okay, just let him come to you, he hasn't touched the ice yet so he'll probably slip up!"

Sasuke looked around. "Hmph… I don't think this ice will melt on it's own." He quickly flashed the hand signals, and shot a thin flame all over the arena, melting the ice. "Now that that's out of the way, we can fight." He turned to where ino was and saw that she had not been graceful enough to dodge the flames.

"Winner, Sasuke!"

The audience cheered, just because sasuke was a crowd favorite.

"will you continue?"

"uh… yeah…" sasuke replied, trying to see if he had hurt ino.

Sasuke returned to the other contestants to be insulted by naruto for having to use the fire ball technique on ino. Gaara was quite pissed, but stayed in his corner, waiting to fight sasuke.

"Next match… Kankuro versus…"

Kankuro appeared at the center of the arena. "This is my chance! I'll show the world that there are three sand siblings!"

"Shikamaru!"

(One minute later)

Kankuro lay in the middle of the arena, tangled in his two puppets, mumbling inaudible curses.

"Winner, Shikamaru! Do you wish to continue?"

"Nope."

The audience cheered, while a few people whispered, "At least he saw it through this time."

"Next match!" Genma choose not to wait for shikamaru, because he knew he'd take all day. "Temari…"

Temari did her typical entrance, floating down on her fan.

"Versus… Kiba!"

Kiba and Akamaru jumped down, landing on all fours. "Have to close the gap, if we can get into close range, she'll be done!"

"Begin!"

While Temari jumped back, Akamaru transformed into Kiba using the beast transformation technique. Temari swung her fan down with the weasel technique, hoping to end the fight quickly. Her attack kicked up a lot of dust. Everyone in the audience focused their eyes kiba's last location, trying to see through the dust. Suddenly two spirals emerged from opposite sides.

"Shit!" temari exclaimed while she swung her fan at the one closest to her, knocking one fang to the ground. But she wasn't in time to hit kiba, who hit her square in the back, causing temari to fall.

"Winner, Kiba! Do you wish to continue?"

"Hell yeah! Right Akamaru?"

"Bark!"

The crowd cheered for the young boy, while temari was rushed out by two medic nins, who were followed by shikamaru.

"Next match… Choji versus… Rock Lee!"

Rock Lee whooped and quickly jumped down, while choji took the stairs, wanting to delay the fight as much as possible.

"Begin!"

Before Choji had a chance to perform any hand symbols, rock lee jumped over and kicked him in the face, rendering him unconscious.

"Winner, Rock Lee! Will-"

"Yes!" Rock Lee shouted as the crowd cheered for him.

Genma smiled at the boys enthusiasm. "which makes the final fight of the first round… Haku versus Gaara!"

Haku moved so quickly, no one was sure how she got there, while gaara dissipated and reappeared in the arena.

"Begin!"

Haku flung several sebon needles towards gaara, whose sand rose to defend him. But one of the needles was able to touch his forhead, causing a small amount of blood to drop. Gaara raised his hand in surprise. In that second, Haku appeared behind gaara and delivered a striking palm to the back of his forehead. She then pushed harder slamming Gaara into the ground. However, when gaara touched the ground, he merely crumbled, reveling himself to be a sand clone. Haku examined the entire arena for any sign of Gaara, but there was none.

Naruto looked down at the ring, "well haku hasn't gotten any slower, but where the hell is gaara?"

Suddenly sand shot out from underneath Haku, which she flipped to dodge. "So… you're under ground…" she then took a sprinters sance and started racing all over the ring. She continued to do so until she stepped on a part of the ground that moved, due to Gaara's automatic sand defense. "Found you!" Haku jumped up and threw seventeen needles towards the spot in the ground, causing Gaara to burst away. Haku examined Gaara. He had avoided all but three of the needles, one which scratched his neck, and two in his left arm.

But when Haku touched down, she felt herself feet sink. She looked down to see her feet covered in quicksand, which Gaara had brought up. She smiled sweetly, "I surrender." She then felt the sand go back into the earth.

"Winner, Gaara!"

The crowd cheered loudly not just for Gaara, but for Haku's performance as well.

"I'll continue."

Up in the contestant's area, havix frowned. "Shit… well… another time Haku."

End Chapter

Thanks to everyone who read! The fights will be longer next time, I promise. Please review!


	24. Determination

I don't own Naruto.

(the stadium)

Shikamaru stood over a slightly battered Temari, silent for a moment. "I know you're awake…"

The golden haired girl smiled her rough smile. "Ugh… I wish I was dead… losing in the first round."

Shikamaru grinned, now sure she was alright. "That's what you get for underestimating Kiba, and all leaf ninjas for"

"Yeah, yeah…" Temari interrupted. "Y'know, you made my life a lot harder today. Not only did you beat Kankuro, but you quit right after! He's gonna be bitchy for weeks…"

"heh… don't worry, the fifth is making me participate further in an attempt to build up my motivation."

"HAH… like it'll help… so you're in for one more round? Who you hoping to fight?"

"Hinata I guess… everyone else takes this way to seriously…"

"Aren't you the one who always complains about fighting girls… well good luck with whoever you draw."

Shikamaru was slightly taken back, but then smiled and headed off to the tournament grounds.

(The arena)

Genma stared watching the screen for the break to be over. The seconds ticked away to zero and he turned to address the audience. "Alright, since there are an odd amount of people left, we will select one ninja who will advance automatically to the second round."

The remaining contestants looked up at the screen, which would decide the flow of the tournament. Several contestants had to fight much harder in the opening round, and if they didn't get a breather would be easy to pick off.

"And the one who advances automatically is… Uzumaki Naruto!"

Naruto jumped up, "That is bullshit! Make the thing pick again!" he was quickly slapped in the head by Kiba.

"You idiot, not having to fight is perfect! Everyone else will be dead tired from the extra round!"

Havix snorted, "You're the only one whose tired, weakling! Anyone who needed a break already would just lose in the third round."

Genma looked up towards the fighters and decided to move things along. "The first match of the second round will now be announced."

Almost instantly the young ninja turned their heads towards the screen. "Rock Lee versus…"

Lee jumped up and down with excitement, then launched himself down to ground level. "No matter what I won't lose this match!"

"Shikamaru!"

"Crap, already?" shikamaru grimaced, as he slowly walked down to the center. As he walked through halls he contemplated battle strategies. "I'll want to keep him at a distance since I can't compete with him hand to hand. But his speed will make capturing him much harder…"

Lee stood waiting, shaking with anticipation. "Yes! This is it! A true genius! I will finally prove hard work can overcome a genius."

Shikamaru trudged into the center as the audience cheered with anticipation. "Begin!"

Shikamaru threw three kunai at Lee, causing Lee to jump back. "Okay, I can't let myself get pushed back any further!" Lee thought to himself. "All I have to do is get in close and I can end it!"

Shikamaru's shadow stretched to ward Lee causing him to jump further back. Unfortunately for Lee, since the chunnin exams several trees had grown in the center of the stadium, so shikamaru had plenty of shadows to add to his own. Luckily Lee was faster then Shikamaru's shadow.

"He's almost backed into the wall, he's trapped…" thought shikamaru. But as soon as Lee reached the wall, he dug into it with his fingers and launched himself up. About thirty feet up he kicked off the wall and landed right in front of shikamaru, landing a lighting fast punch. Shikamaru fell to the ground, "Damn… he's fast… never had a chance."

Genma smiled as Lee was already jumping up and down. "The winner… Rock Lee!" the crowd applauded loudly for rock lee. He ran up to the contenders booth, where he was greeted by Neji.

"You've beaten a true genius today Lee, does this mean you'll finally stop pursuing me?"

Lee smirked, "Not a chance, you will always be my rival Neji! That won't change even after I beat you!"

Genma called out the next match, "next round… Hinata…"

Hinata gasped and started moving toward the stairs as Naruto called out to her, "You'll be fine, Hinata!"

Hinata stood in the center of the ring, fumbling her fingers.

"Versus… Neji!" Genma paused for a moment, "uh-oh."

Neji started moving toward the stairs before Naruto called out to him. "If this ends like last time, I won't wait for our fight to be called."

Neji stared at Naruto, prepared to address him, but then just smirked and walked off. Naruto was about to chase after him before Lee stopped him. "Don't worry Naruto, Neji's changed. He bears no hatred towards Hinata."

Naruto unclenched his fist and reluctantly returned to the ledge to view the fight.

Genma looked at the two fighters, who already had taken the gentle fist stance and activated the byakugen. "Begin!"

Neji rushed towards Hinata, throwing several attacks her way, which she deflected easily. Hinata quickly found an opening, but Neji jumped back. "Hm, you have improved greatly… but your eyes show that you don't believe you're at my level."

Hinata struggled not to lower her head, "No!" she thought, "N-naruto believes I can win! I won't let him down!" She quickly threw several stars toward Neji and rushed in toward the left side, trying to put him on the defensive. Neji easily deflected the weapons, but was slightly pushed back by Hinata's assault, though she never landed a direct blow.

Lee looked down at the fight, "Wow, hinata has really improved! But… I don't think she's quite at Neji's level…" he said with a undertone of disappointment in his voice, which made Naruto laugh.

"Heh… well, I don't think Hinata knows as many techniques as Neji, or is quite as skilled… but we both know that there's a more important quality…"

Lee smiled, "Determination." He said, finishing Naruto's sentence.

Hinata was slowly driving Neji back, until Neji saw an opening for his patented 128 hit combo, "Initial hits!"

Hinata's eyes blugged as she sent her hands to deflect the two hits, sending Neji's hands back. "Now!" she whispered as she sent her hand towards Neji's chest, successfully hitting him. Neji winced in pain, but only slightly. With lightning speed he drew five stars and launched them at Hinata. Hinata spinned out of the way, though one grazed her right leg. She ignored the wound and charged Neji again.

Hisashi sat watching the match from the front row. "I had thought it was impossible, but Hinata is finaaly on the path to being a capable ninja. I will recommend a promotion to be given to Kurenai…"

Kurenai stood, her mouth slightly hanging open. "When did Hinata become so… confident? Is this because of Naruto?"

Tsunade sat next to Jiriaya, "Hmph… Hinata's dossier said she was a weak ninja, I guess the Hyuuga standards are still too high…"

Jiriaya smiled, "She has made serious improvement since the chuunin exam, she managed to shed her frailty and timidness, and become slightly more… reckless. Who do you think taught her that?"

Neji smiled, "Hinata, your growth is unquestionable… let us see how far you've gone." He waited until Hinata's hands were a safe distance away. "Kaiten!"

Hinata gulped as she recognized the stance, "This is it…" she thought to herself. "Kaiten!"

The two blue auras clashed against each other pushing back and forth on each other until, to the audiences surprise, Neji was pushed back. Hinata pushed herself past her surprise and took the opportunity to launch an attack at Neji chest, landing three successful blows before Neji delivered a strong hit to her mid-section driving her back.

Lee looked down at the scene in disbelief, "That's impossible! Neji's aura was much stronger! Hinata should have been the one who was pushed back!'

Naruto shook his head, "I-I thught so to…"

Both Haku and Hyoto looked over toward Havix. Havix nodded and tilted his head down in concentration for a moment. "Oh, I get it… The boy does have much stronger aura, but his vision isn't complete, so there's a small part of his shield that he has to fill in without seeing it. It makes it a bit weaker than the rest of his protection field."

Lee nodded, "Yes, it's the Hyuuga family weakness…"

Havix shrugged, "Well, whatever it is, the girl doesn't have it. Her field of vision is complete. So every rotation, she forces the boy back a bit."

Naruto smiled as he looked down at hinata, who was once again trying to force Neji back. "See Hinata, you are strong enough to be the heir…"

Neji was barely able to block Hinata's attacks, while Hinata was almost completely out of chakra. "She's tired… this will decide everything!" He smirked at Hinata. "one last time… Kaiten!"

Hinata's muscles tightened, "Kaiten!"

The auras clashed again, though much weaker this time. Both collapsed at the same time, but neji was forced back farther. Hinata took the opportunity and delivered a kick to his stomach, knocking Neji to the ground.

Neji ached all over, but wasn't unconscious. "Her kick was weak, she wasn't able to put enough chakra into her kick…" he looked over to Hinata, who was dry heaving out of strain. He propped himself up a bit, then felt stinging pain in his arms. He fell back on the ground. "I… concede."

Genma blinked, "Winner, Hyuuga Hinata." The entire stadium seemed to shake with cheers and applause. Hisahsi stood up and clapped. A small tear fell from Kurenai's eye. Hinata fell to her knees from disbelief.

Genma put his arm on the panting girls shoulder. "Do you want to continue?"

Hinata looked up and smiled, "I-I don't think I can… I'm out of chakra."

Naruto and Kiba jumped down to congratulate the dark haired girl. Naruto raised the girl up in his arms, smiling down on her. "You did it!"

Hinata smiled as she raised her lips up to Naruto's, kissing him as hard as she could, which at the moment wasn't that hard. Naruto was surprise at Hinata kissing him in front of a stadium full of people, but quickly returned the kiss.

Tsunade smiled, "I wish I was young again…"

Jiriaya snorted, "We know… that's why you hide all you old lady wrinkles…" He was immediately punched into the wall.

Tsunade looked over to where Hisashi was standing, who had changed from clapping to clenching his fist. "Jiriaya, we might have to take care of something…"

Naruto carried hinata up the stairs as Genma looked up toward the board. "Next round… Kiba versus…"

Kiba smiled, "I guess we don't have to go anywhere eh, Akamaru?"

"Bark!'

"Havix!"

Havix looked down on the field and grinned. He jumped off the railing colliding with the ground hard, leading with his right foot. The collision left a deep hole in the ground.

Kiba looked at the ground. "odd landing. He must need the hole for something… Forget it! Let's go over the info on this guy… kunais won't work on him, his size is his main advantage. On the plus side, he looks pretty slow, and I don't think he knows any good techniques…"

Havix sneered, "I know plenty of good techniques… but I won't use them on trash like you."

Kiba was surprised, "he can read minds?"

"Yeah, but don't worry, I won't use it on you… you're a blank slate anyways."

Genma wondered why the taller boy was apparently carrying out a conversation by himself, but shrugged it off. "Begin!"

"Beast transformation jutsu!" Kiba screamed, transforming both him and akamaru into a feral looking Kiba. They both charged Havix, getting on opposite sides then attacking. Havix took the first punch, then elbowed his attacker in the face, then swatted the other Kiba in the face.

Both kibas meet about twenty feet away from Havix. "Heh… didn't think that would work…" Kiba said aloud.

"Nothings going to work! You're not strong enough to topple me! I'll laugh off that twin fang attack of yours!"

Kiba smiled at the insults. "Ha! I doubt that! But I'm using my best technique on you…Right, Akamaru?"

"Woof!"

Kiba flashed the signals, and both he and Akamaru turned into a large two headed wolf. Havix jumped back to the whole he punched earlier. "Crap, I didn't think he had something like that!" he started flashing hand signals, having a large water dragon rise out.

Genma looked over, "That's why he landed oddly, to bring him closer to water."

Havix launched the dragon toward the spinning devil dog, slamming his hands into the dragon before they collided. The dragon was destroyed, by the two headed wolf was struggling to move. Havix laughed, though breathed a sigh of relief. "Right before you hit, I lowered the temperature of the water. The cold makes it near impossible to pump out chakra."

Havix then snickered, "By the way, what smells like wet dog?" he then ran toward the collapsed beast and struck the left head, shattering the technique. Havix looked down in disappointment, seeing he only held the dog. "Huh… guess you die first…"

"NO!" Kiba screamed as he went into the fang destroyer, hitting Havix square in the chest. Havix was driven back, but was still strong enough to slam both his fist down into kiba's neck. Kiba fell to the ground, though Havix continued to kick him.

"Told you it wouldn't hurt." Havix taunted before one last kick to kiba's face.

Genma looked down at the battered kiba, "Winner, Havix!" havix received the same polite clapping mixed with blood thirsty howls from the audience.

Havix walked up the stairs. "Great, I'm in the semi-finals and I still haven't used my best technique."

Genma looked up, "which means the final match in this round is…" he stopped when he realized both Gaara and Sasuke where already there. "Right… Begin!"

Sasuke rushed Gaara, trying to deliver a spinning kick, but was caught by Gaara's sand. The sand morphed around his leg and threw him to the ground. But Sasuke stooped the collision by pushing his hands towards the ground. He then immediately lowered himself to his elbows, flashed several signs, and blew a giant fire ball toward Gaara. The attack forced the sand back to its defense position.

Gaara was shielded from the flames, but still felt the scorching heat. He blinked for a second, and when he opened his eyes, he saw that a portion of the sand had been turned to glass by the flames.

Sasuke broke threw the glass and kicked Gaara directly in the stomach, then propped himself on his hands again, and kicked Gaara in the face. Sasuke grinned when Gaara took a step back. "So, even if you control it, it's still just sand." Sasuke said with a laugh.

Gaara surprised him by sneering. "Fire and heat alone cause physical reactions, not chemical."

Sasuke didn't grasp the meaning, so Gaara continued. "So sand turned to glass, is still sand."

Sasuke's eyes bulged in realization, but wasn't able to move before seven long shards of glass shot into his back. "AHH SHIT!"

Gaara laughed at Sasuke's pain and surprise, then swatted him with a fist of sand. Sasuke landed on his feet and prepared the counter attack, one which Gaara recognized. In response Gaara raised all the glass around him to cut sasuke down.

"Chidori!" Sasuke screamed, charging Gaara. As he ran towards him, glass continued to slice threw him. Large shards entered his leg and torso, while the chidori shattered all that came towards his face. He reached Gaara after what seemed like an eternity, and dove into Gaara's midsection. He was slightly deflected by Gaara's sand, but still slashed threw Gaara's left side.

Both ninja's fell to the ground, both covered in blood. The audience was silent, astounded that two young boys took this so seriously.

Genma was about to call a tie when a blood covered youth rose to his feet. "Well then… the winner is"

(End of Chapter)

The more reviews I get, the quicker I'll put the next chapter out.


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